Method and device for transmitting/receiving data in wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a method and a device for transmitting data by a first device in a wireless communication system that supports direct device-to-device communication, wherein one or more messages are received from multiple devices, at least one message among the one or more messages is transmitted to a second device on the basis of priority, and the priority is determined in such an order that a message having the lowest first received signal strength has the highest priority, the first received signal strength indicating the received signal strength of the one or more messages.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method for transmitting and receiving data and a device that supports the same in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication.

BACKGROUND ART

A mobile communication system has been developed to provide a voice service while guaranteeing user mobility. However, the mobile communication system has been extended a service range to a data service as well as a voice, and nowadays, a resource shortage phenomenon occurs due to explosive traffic increase and users request a higher speed service and thus a more enhanced mobile communication system is required.

A next generation mobile communication system should be able to support acceptance of explosive data traffic, epochal increase of a transmission rate per user, acceptance of the largely increased connection device number, very low end-to-end latency, and high energy efficiency. For this reason, various technologies such as dual connectivity, Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (Massive MIMO), In-band Full Duplex, Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), Super wideband support, and Device Networking have been researched.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

The present invention provides a method and device for transmitting data in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication.

The present invention provides a method and device for relaying data in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication.

The present invention provides a method and device for relaying data to a terminal outside coverage in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication.

The present invention provides a method and device for selecting data to relay when receiving data requiring relay from a plurality of terminals in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication.

The present invention provides a method and device for selecting a resource for relaying data when receiving data requiring relay from a plurality of terminals in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication.

The technical problem of this specification is not limited to the above-described technical problems and the other technical problems will be understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

Technical Solution

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method for a first device to transmit data in a wireless communication system supporting device-to-device direct communication includes steps of receiving one or more messages from a plurality of devices; and transmitting at least one message among the one or more messages to a second device based on a priority, wherein the priority is determined in order in which first received signal strength indicating received signal strength of the one or more messages is low.

Further, in the present invention, the first received signal strength is larger than a first threshold value indicating minimum received signal strength and is smaller than a second threshold value indicating maximum received signal strength.

Further, in the present invention, the method further includes step of calculating second received signal strength indicating received signal strength at a target device, which is a destination of the one or more messages, wherein the second received signal strength is lower than a first threshold value indicating minimum received signal strength for demodulating a message at the target device.

Further, in the present invention, the second received signal strength is a value that subtracts a first loss value from the first received signal strength, wherein the first loss value is calculated based on a first message transmitted from the target device to the first device.

Further, in the present invention, the one or more messages includes an indicator indicating whether to transmit to the second device.

Further, in the present invention, the at least one message is transmitted at the same resource position as that of the one or more messages.

Further, in the present invention, the at least one message is transmitted through a resource of a next position of a resource in which the one or more messages is transmitted.

Further, in the present invention, the method further includes step of receiving resource information related to a position of a resource for transmitting the at least one message from a source device or the plurality of devices, wherein the at least one message is transmitted based on the resource information.

Further, in the present invention, the one or more messages is transmitted through a first resource set, and the at least one message is transmitted through a second resource set.

Further, in the present invention, the first message includes time information indicating a time in which the first message is transmitted to another device through a relay operation.

Further, in the present invention, the first message includes hop count information indicating the maximum hop number in which the first message may be transmitted through a relay operation.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a first device for transmitting data in a wireless communication system supporting device-to-device direct communication includes a communication unit for transmitting and receiving a signal to and from the outside by wire and/or wireless; and a control unit functionally connected to the communication unit, wherein the control unit controls to receive one or more messages from a plurality of devices, and transmit at least one message among the one or more messages to a second device based on a priority, and wherein the priority is determined in order in which first received signal strength indicating received signal strength of the at least one message is low.

Advantageous Effects

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication, a method and device for transmitting and receiving data have the following effects.

According to the present invention, in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication, by relaying a message, a transmitting range of a message can be extended.

According to the present invention, in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication, by relaying a message, a throughput of the system can be enhanced.

According to the present invention, in a wireless communication system that supports device-to-device communication, by selectively relaying a message, a resource can be efficiently used.

The effect of the present invention is not limited to the above-described effects and the other objects will be understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompany drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the present invention and are incorporated on and constitute a part of this specification illustrate embodiments of the present invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of a radio frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a resource grid for a downlink slot in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 3 illustrates a structure of downlink subframe in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of uplink subframe in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of the shape in which PUCCH formats are mapped to the PUCCH region of uplink physical resource block in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 6 illustrates a structure of CQI channel in the case of normal CP in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 7 illustrates a structure of ACK/NACK channel in the case of normal CP in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of generating and transmitting five SC-FDMA symbols during a slot in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of component carrier and carrier aggregation in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of subframe structure according to cross carrier scheduling in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of transmission channel processing of UL-SCH in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of signal processing process of uplink shared channel which is a transport channel in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 13 is a diagram of a general multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna communication system.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the channel from multiple transmission antennas to a single reception antenna.

FIG. 15 illustrates a reference signal pattern mapped to a downlink resource block pair in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 16 illustrates an uplink subframe including a sounding reference signal symbol in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 17 illustrates a relay node resource partition in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 18 is a diagram for conceptually describing a D2D communication in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of various scenarios in a D2D communication to which the method proposed in the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 20 is diagram illustrating an example in which a discovery resource is allocated according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a discovery process according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 22 and 23 are diagrams illustrating an example of a method of allocating a resource in device-to-device communication according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 24 to 26 are diagrams illustrating an example of a relay process and a resource for relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of receiving a message for relay from a plurality of terminals according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of selectively relaying a message according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of selecting a message for relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating another example of a method of selecting a message for relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 31 to 34 are diagrams illustrating an example of a method of selecting a resource for relay of a message according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a wireless communication device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE

Hereafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. A detailed description to be disclosed hereinbelow together with the accompanying drawing is to describe embodiments of the present invention and not to describe a unique embodiment for carrying out the present invention. The detailed description below includes details in order to provide a complete understanding. However, those skilled in the art know that the present invention can be carried out without the details.

In some cases, in order to prevent a concept of the present invention from being ambiguous, known structures and devices may be omitted or may be illustrated in a block diagram format based on core function of each structure and device.

In the specification, a base station means a terminal node of a network directly performing communication with a terminal. In the present document, specific operations described to be performed by the base station may be performed by an upper node of the base station in some cases. That is, it is apparent that in the network constituted by multiple network nodes including the base station, various operations performed for communication with the terminal may be performed by the base station or other network nodes other than the base station. A base station (BS) may be generally substituted with terms such as a fixed station, Node B, evolved-NodeB (eNB), a base transceiver system (BTS), an access point (AP), and the like. Further, a ‘terminal’ may be fixed or movable and be substituted with terms such as user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a user terminal (UT), a mobile subscriber station (MSS), a subscriber station (SS), an advanced mobile station (AMS), a wireless terminal (WT), a Machine-Type Communication (MTC) device, a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device, a Device-to-Device (D2D) device, and the like.

Hereinafter, a downlink means communication from the base station to the terminal and an uplink means communication from the terminal to the base station. In the downlink, a transmitter may be a part of the base station and a receiver may be a part of the terminal. In the uplink, the transmitter may be a part of the terminal and the receiver may be a part of the base station.

Specific terms used in the following description are provided to help appreciating the present invention and the use of the specific terms may be modified into other forms within the scope without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention.

The following technology may be used in various wireless access systems, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), single carrier-FDMA (SC-FDMA), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and the like. The CDMA may be implemented by radio technology universal terrestrial radio access (UTRA) or CDMA2000. The TDMA may be implemented by radio technology such as Global System for Mobile communications (GSM)/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)/Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE). The OFDMA may be implemented as radio technology such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802-20, E-UTRA (Evolved UTRA), and the like. The UTRA is a part of a universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS). 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) as a part of an evolved UMTS (E-UMTS) using evolved-UMTS terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) adopts the OFDMA in a downlink and the SC-FDMA in an uplink. LTE-advanced (A) is an evolution of the 3GPP LTE.

The embodiments of the present invention may be based on standard documents disclosed in at least one of IEEE 802, 3GPP, and 3GPP2 which are the wireless access systems. That is, steps or parts which are not described to definitely show the technical spirit of the present invention among the embodiments of the present invention may be based on the documents. Further, all terms disclosed in the document may be described by the standard document.

3GPP LTE/LTE-A is primarily described for clear description, but technical features of the present invention are not limited thereto.

General System

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure a radio frame in a wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In 3GPP LTE/LTE-A, radio frame structure type 1 may be applied to frequency division duplex (FDD) and radio frame structure type 2 may be applied to time division duplex (TDD) are supported.

FIG. 1(a) exemplifies radio frame structure type 1. The radio frame is constituted by 10 subframes. One subframe is constituted by 2 slots in a time domain. A time required to transmit one subframe is referred to as a transmissions time interval (TTI). For example, the length of one subframe may be 1 ms and the length of one slot may be 0.5 ms.

One slot includes a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in the time domain and includes multiple resource blocks (RBs) in a frequency domain. In 3GPP LTE, since OFDMA is used in downlink, the OFDM symbol is used to express one symbol period. The OFDM symbol may be one SC-FDMA symbol or symbol period. The resource block is a resource allocation wise and includes a plurality of consecutive subcarriers in one slot.

FIG. 1(b) illustrates frame structure type 2. Radio frame type 2 is constituted by 2 half frames, each half frame is constituted by 5 subframes, a downlink pilot time slot (DwPTS), a guard period (GP), and an uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS), and one subframe among them is constituted by 2 slots. The DwPTS is used for initial cell discovery, synchronization, or channel estimation in a terminal. The UpPTS is used for channel estimation in a base station and to match uplink transmission synchronization of the terminal. The guard period is a period for removing interference which occurs in uplink due to multi-path delay of a downlink signal between the uplink and the downlink.

In frame structure type 2 of a TDD system, an uplink-downlink configuration is a rule indicating whether the uplink and the downlink are allocated (alternatively, reserved) with respect to all subframes. Table 1 shows the uplink-downlink configuration.

TABLE 1 Downlink- to- Uplink Uplink- Switch- Downlink point Subframe number configuration periodicity 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 5 ms D S U U U D S U U U 1 5 ms D S U U D D S U U D 2 5 ms D S U D D D S U D D 3 10 ms  D S U U U D D U D D 4 10 ms  D S U U D D D D D D 5 10 ms  D S U D D D D D D D 6 5 ms D S U U U D S — — D

Referring to Table 1, for each sub frame of the radio frame, ‘D’ represents a subframe for downlink transmission, ‘U’ represents a subframe for uplink transmission, and ‘S’ represents a special subframe constituted by three fields such as the DwPTS, the GP, and the UpPTS. The uplink-downlink configuration may be divided into 7 configurations and the positions and/or the numbers of the downlink subframe, the special subframe, and the uplink subframe may vary for each configuration.

A time when the downlink is switched to the uplink or a time when the uplink is switched to the downlink is referred to as a switching point. Switch-point periodicity means a period in which an aspect of the uplink subframe and the downlink subframe are switched is similarly repeated and both 5 ms or 10 ms are supported. When the period of the downlink-uplink switching point is 5 ms, the special subframe S is present for each half-frame and when the period of the downlink-uplink switching point is 5 ms, the special subframe S is present only in a first half-frame.

In all configurations, subframes #0 and #5 and the DwPTS are intervals only the downlink transmission. The UpPTS and a subframe just subsequently to the subframe are continuously intervals for the uplink transmission.

The uplink-downlink configuration may be known by both the base station and the terminal as system information. The base station transmits only an index of configuration information whenever the uplink-downlink configuration information is changed to announce a change of an uplink-downlink allocation state of the radio frame to the terminal. Further, the configuration information as a kind of downlink control information may be transmitted through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) similarly to other scheduling information and may be commonly transmitted to all terminals in a cell through a broadcast channel as broadcasting information.

The structure of the radio frame is just one example and the number subcarriers included in the radio frame or the number of slots included in the subframe and the number of OFDM symbols included in the slot may be variously changed.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a resource grid for one downlink slot in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 2, one downlink slot includes the plurality of OFDM symbols in the time domain. Herein, it is exemplarily described that one downlink slot includes 7 OFDM symbols and one resource block includes 12 subcarriers in the frequency domain, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Each element on the resource grid is referred to as a resource element and one resource block includes 12×7 resource elements. The number of resource blocks included in the downlink slot, NDL is subordinated to a downlink transmission bandwidth.

A structure of the uplink slot may be the same as that of the downlink slot.

FIG. 3 illustrates a structure of a downlink subframe in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 3, a maximum of three fore OFDM symbols in the first slot of the sub frame is a control region to which control channels are allocated and residual OFDM symbols is a data region to which a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) is allocated. Examples of the downlink control channel used in the 3GPP LTE include a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), a Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH), and the like.

The PFCICH is transmitted in the first OFDM symbol of the subframe and transports information on the number (that is, the size of the control region) of OFDM symbols used for transmitting the control channels in the subframe. The PHICH which is a response channel to the uplink transports an Acknowledgement (ACK)/Not-Acknowledgement (NACK) signal for a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). Control information transmitted through a PDCCH is referred to as downlink control information (DCI). The downlink control information includes uplink resource allocation information, downlink resource allocation information, or an uplink transmission (Tx) power control command for a predetermined terminal group.

The PDCCH may transport A resource allocation and transmission format (also referred to as a downlink grant) of a downlink shared channel (DL-SCH), resource allocation information (also referred to as an uplink grant) of an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH), paging information in a paging channel (PCH), system information in the DL-SCH, resource allocation for an upper-layer control message such as a random access response transmitted in the PDSCH, an aggregate of transmission power control commands for individual terminals in the predetermined terminal group, a voice over IP (VoIP). A plurality of PDCCHs may be transmitted in the control region and the terminal may monitor the plurality of PDCCHs. The PDCCH is constituted by one or an aggregate of a plurality of continuous control channel elements (CCEs). The CCE is a logical allocation wise used to provide a coding rate depending on a state of a radio channel to the PDCCH. The CCEs correspond to a plurality of resource element groups. A format of the PDCCH and a bit number of usable PDCCH are determined according to an association between the number of CCEs and the coding rate provided by the CCEs.

The base station determines the PDCCH format according to the DCI to be transmitted and attaches the control information to a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the control information. The CRC is masked with a unique identifier (referred to as a radio network temporary identifier (RNTI)) according to an owner or a purpose of the PDCCH. In the case of a PDCCH for a specific terminal, the unique identifier of the terminal, for example, a cell-RNTI (C-RNTI) may be masked with the CRC. Alternatively, in the case of a PDCCH for the paging message, a paging indication identifier, for example, the CRC may be masked with a paging-RNTI (P-RNTI). In the case of a PDCCH for the system information, in more detail, a system information block (SIB), the CRC may be masked with a system information identifier, that is, a system information (SI)-RNTI. The CRC may be masked with a random access (RA)-RNTI in order to indicate the random access response which is a response to transmission of a random access preamble.

FIG. 4 illustrates a structure of an uplink subframe in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 4, the uplink subframe may be divided into the control region and the data region in a frequency domain. A physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transporting uplink control information is allocated to the control region. A physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transporting user data is allocated to the data region. One terminal does not simultaneously transmit the PUCCH and the PUSCH in order to maintain a single carrier characteristic.

A resource block (RB) pair in the subframe are allocated to the PUCCH for one terminal RBs included in the RB pair occupy different subcarriers in two slots, respectively. The RB pair allocated to the PUCCH frequency-hops in a slot boundary.

Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)

Uplink control information (UCI) transmitted through a PUCCH may include the following scheduling request (SR), HARQ ACK/NACK information, and downlink channel measurement information.

-   -   Scheduling Request (SR): The SR is information used for         requesting an uplink UL-SCH resource. The SR is transmitted         using an On-off Keying (OOK) method.     -   HARQ ACK/NACK: The HARQ ACK/NACK is a response signal to a         downlink data packet on a PDSCH. The HARQ ACK/NACK represents         whether a downlink data packet is successfully received.         ACK/NACK 1 bit is transmitted in response to a single downlink         codeword, and ACK/NACK 2 bits are transmitted in response to two         downlink codewords.     -   Channel State Information (CSI): The CSI is feedback information         about a downlink channel. CSI may include at least one of a         Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), a rank indicator (RI), a         Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), and a Precoding Type Indicator         (PTI). 20 bits are used per subframe.

The HARQ ACK/NACK information may be generated according to a downlink data packet on the PDSCH is successfully decoded. In the existing wireless communication system, 1 bit is transmitted as ACK/NACK information with respect to downlink single codeword transmission and 2 bits are transmitted as the ACK/NACK information with respect to downlink 2-codeword transmission.

The channel measurement information which designates feedback information associated with a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technique may include a channel quality indicator (CQI), a precoding matrix index (PMI), and a rank indicator (RI). The channel measurement information may also be collectively expressed as the CQI.

20 bits may be used per subframe for transmitting the CQI.

The PUCCH may be modulated by using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) techniques. Control information of a plurality of terminals may be transmitted through the PUCCH and when code division multiplexing (CDM) is performed to distinguish signals of the respective terminals, a constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence having a length of 12 is primary used. Since the CAZAC sequence has a characteristic to maintain a predetermined amplitude in the time domain and the frequency domain, the CAZAC sequence has a property suitable for increasing coverage by decreasing a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) or cubic metric (CM) of the terminal. Further, the ACK/NACK information for downlink data transmission performed through the PUCCH is covered by using an orthogonal sequence or an orthogonal cover (OC).

Further, the control information transmitted on the PUCCH may be distinguished by using a cyclically shifted sequence having different cyclic shift (CS) values. The cyclically shifted sequence may be generated by cyclically shifting a base sequence by a specific cyclic shift (CS) amount. The specific CS amount is indicated by the cyclic shift (CS) index. The number of usable cyclic shifts may vary depending on delay spread of the channel. Various types of sequences may be used as the base sequence the CAZAC sequence is one example of the corresponding sequence.

Further, the amount of control information which the terminal may transmit in one subframe may be determined according to the number (that is, SC-FDMA symbols other an SC-FDMA symbol used for transmitting a reference signal (RS) for coherent detection of the PUCCH) of SC-FDMA symbols which are usable for transmitting the control information.

In the 3GPP LTE system, the PUCCH is defined as a total of 7 different formats according to the transmitted control information, a modulation technique, the amount of control information, and the like and an attribute of the uplink control information (UCI) transmitted according to each PUCCH format may be summarized as shown in Table 2 given below.

TABLE 2 PUCCH Format Uplink Control Information(UCI) Format 1 Scheduling Request(SR)(unmodulated waveform) Format 1a 1-bit HARQ ACK/NACK with/without SR Format 1b 2-bit HARQ ACK/NACK with/without SR Format 2 CQI (20 coded bits) Format 2 CQI and 1- or 2-bit HARQ ACK/NACK (20 bits) for extended CP only Format 2a CQI and 1-bit HARQ ACK/NACK (20 + 1 coded bits) Format 2b CQI and 2-bit HARQ ACK/NACK (20 + 2 coded bits) Format 3 HARQ ACK/NACK, SR, CSI (48 coded bits)

PUCCH format 1 is used for transmitting only the SR. A waveform which is not modulated is adopted in the case of transmitting only the SR and this will be described below in detail.

PUCCH format 1a or 1b is used for transmitting the HARQ ACK/NACK. PUCCH format 1a or 1b may be used when only the HARQ ACK/NACK is transmitted in a predetermined subframe. Alternatively, the HARQ ACK/NACK and the SR may be transmitted in the same subframe by using PUCCH format 1a or 1b.

PUCCH format 2 is used for transmitting the CQI and PUCCH format 2a or 2b is used for transmitting the CQI and the HARQ ACK/NACK. In the case of an extended CP, PUCCH format 2 may be transmitted for transmitting the CQI and the HARQ ACK/NACK.

PUCCH format 3 is used for carrying encoded UCI of 48 bits. The PUCCH format 3 may carry HARQ ACK/NACK of a plurality of serving cells, SR (when existing), and CSI report of one serving cell.

FIG. 5 illustrates one example of a type in which PUCCH formats are mapped to a PUCCH region of an uplink physical resource block in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 5, N_(RB) ^(UL) represents the number of resource blocks in the uplink and 0, 1, . . . , N_(RB) ^(UL)−1 mean numbers of physical resource blocks. Basically, the PUCCH is mapped to both edges of an uplink frequency block. As illustrated in FIG. 5, PUCCH format 2/2a/2b is mapped to a PUCCH region expressed as m=0, 1 and this may be expressed in such a manner that PUCCH format 2/2a/2b is mapped to resource blocks positioned at a band edge. Further, both PUCCH format 2/2a/2b and PUCCH format 1/1a/1b may be mixedly mapped to a PUCCH region expressed as m=2. Next, PUCCH format 1/1a/1b may be mapped to a PUCCH region expressed as m=3, 4, and 5. The number (N_(RB) ⁽²⁾) of PUCCH RBs which are usable by PUCCH format 2/2a/2b may be indicated to terminals in the cell by broadcasting signaling.

PUCCH format 2/2a/2b is described. PUCCH format 2/2a/2b is a control channel for transmitting channel measurement feedback (CQI, PMI, and RI).

A reporting period of the channel measurement feedbacks (hereinafter, collectively expressed as CQI information) and a frequency wise (alternatively, a frequency resolution) to be measured may be controlled by the base station. In the time domain, periodic and aperiodic CQI reporting may be supported. PUCCH format 2 may be used for only the periodic reporting and the PUSCH may be used for aperiodic reporting. In the case of the aperiodic reporting, the base station may instruct the terminal to transmit a scheduling resource loaded with individual CQI reporting for the uplink data transmission.

FIG. 6 illustrates a structure of a CQI channel in the case of a general CP in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In SC-FDMA symbols 0 to 6 of one slot, SC-FDMA symbols 1 and 5 (second and sixth symbols) may be used for transmitting a demodulation reference signal and the CQI information may be transmitted in the residual SC-FDMA symbols. Meanwhile, in the case of the extended CP, one SC-FDMA symbol (SC-FDMA symbol 3) is used for transmitting the DMRS.

In PUCCH format 2/2a/2b, modulation by the CAZAC sequence is supported and the CAZAC sequence having the length of 12 is multiplied by a QPSK-modulated symbol. The cyclic shift (CS) of the sequence is changed between the symbol and the slot. The orthogonal covering is used with respect to the DMRS.

The reference signal (DMRS) is loaded on two SC-FDMA symbols separated from each other by 3 SC-FDMA symbols among 7 SC-FDMA symbols included in one slot and the CQI information is loaded on 5 residual SC-FDMA symbols. Two RSs are used in one slot in order to support a high-speed terminal. Further, the respective terminals are distinguished by using the CS sequence. CQI information symbols are modulated and transferred to all SC-FDMA symbols and the SC-FDMA symbol is constituted by one sequence. That is, the terminal modulates and transmits the CQI to each sequence.

The number of symbols which may be transmitted to one TTI is 10 and modulation of the CQI information is determined up to QPSK. When QPSK mapping is used for the SC-FDMA symbol, since a CQI value of 2 bits may be loaded, a CQI value of 10 bits may be loaded on one slot. Therefore, a CQI value of a maximum of 20 bits may be loaded on one subframe. A frequency domain spread code is used for spreading the CQI information in the frequency domain.

The CAZAC sequence (for example, ZC sequence) having the length of 12 may be used as the frequency domain spread code. CAZAC sequences having different CS values may be applied to the respective control channels to be distinguished from each other. IFFT is performed with respect to the CQI information in which the frequency domain is spread.

12 different terminals may be orthogonally multiplexed on the same PUCCH RB by a cyclic shift having 12 equivalent intervals. In the case of a general CP, a DMRS sequence on SC-FDMA symbol 1 and 5 (on SC-FDMA symbol 3 in the case of the extended CP) is similar to a CQI signal sequence on the frequency domain, but the modulation of the CQI information is not adopted.

The terminal may be semi-statically configured by upper-layer signaling so as to periodically report different CQI, PMI, and RI types on PUCCH resources indicated as PUCCH resource indexes (n_(PUCCH) ^((1,{tilde over (p)})), n_(PUCCH) ^((2,{tilde over (p)})), and n_(PUCCH) ^((3,{tilde over (p)}))). Herein, the PUCCH resource index (n_(PUCCH) ^((2,{tilde over (p)}))) is information indicating the PUCCH region used for PUCCH format 2/2a/2b and a CS value to be used.

Hereinafter, PUCCH formats 1a and 1b will be described.

In the PUCCH format 1a/1b, a symbol modulated using a BPSK or QPSK modulation method is multiplied with a CAZAC sequence of a length 12. For example, a result in which a CAZAC sequence r (n) (n=0, 1, 2, . . . , N−1) of a length N is multiplied to a modulation symbol d(0) becomes y(0), y(1), y(2), . . . , y(N−1). y(0), y(1), y(2), . . . , y(N−1) symbols may be referred to as a block of symbol. After a CAZAC sequence is multiplied to a modulation symbol, block-wise diffusion using an orthogonal sequence is applied.

A Hadamard sequence of a length 4 is used for general ACK/NACK information, and a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) sequence of a length 3 is used for shortened ACK/NACK information and a reference signal.

A Hadamard sequence of a length 2 is used for a reference signal of an extended CP.

FIG. 7 illustrates a structure of an ACK/NACK channel in the case of a general CP in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 7, a PUCCH channel structure for transmitting the HARQ ACK/NACK without the CQI is exemplarily illustrated.

The reference signal (DMRS) is loaded on three consecutive SC-FDMA symbols in a middle part among 7 SC-FDMA symbols and the ACK/NACK signal is loaded on 4 residual SC-FDMA symbols.

Meanwhile, in the case of the extended CP, the RS may be loaded on two consecutive symbols in the middle part. The number of and the positions of symbols used in the RS may vary depending on the control channel and the numbers and the positions of symbols used in the ACK/NACK signal associated with the positions of symbols used in the RS may also correspondingly vary depending on the control channel.

Acknowledgment response information (not scrambled status) of 1 bit and 2 bits may be expressed as one HARQ ACK/NACK modulated symbol by using the BPSK and QPSK modulation techniques, respectively. A positive acknowledgement response (ACK) may be encoded as ‘1’ and a negative acknowledgment response (NACK) may be encoded as ‘0’.

When a control signal is transmitted in an allocated band, 2-dimensional (D) spread is adopted in order to increase a multiplexing capacity. That is, frequency domain spread and time domain spread are simultaneously adopted in order to increase the number of terminals or control channels which may be multiplexed.

A frequency domain sequence is used as the base sequence in order to spread the ACK/NACK signal in the frequency domain. A Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence which is one of the CAZAC sequences may be used as the frequency domain sequence. For example, different CSs are applied to the ZC sequence which is the base sequence, and as a result, multiplexing different terminals or different control channels may be applied. The number of CS resources supported in an SC-FDMA symbol for PUCCH RBs for HARQ ACK/NACK transmission is set by a cell-specific upper-layer signaling parameter (Δ_(shift) ^(PUCCH)).

The ACK/NACK signal which is frequency-domain spread is spread in the time domain by using an orthogonal spreading code. As the orthogonal spreading code, a Walsh-Hadamard sequence or DFT sequence may be used. For example, the ACK/NACK signal may be spread by using an orthogonal sequence (w0, w1, w2, and w3) having the length of 4 with respect to 4 symbols. Further, the RS is also spread through an orthogonal sequence having the length of 3 or 2. This is referred to as orthogonal covering (OC).

Multiple terminals may be multiplexed by a code division multiplexing (CDM) scheme by using the CS resources in the frequency domain and the OC resources in the time domain described above. That is, ACK/NACK information and RSs of a lot of terminals may be multiplexed on the same PUCCH RB.

In respect to the time-domain spread CDM, the number of spreading codes supported with respect to the ACK/NACK information is limited by the number of RS symbols. That is, since the number of RS transmitting SC-FDMA symbols is smaller than that of ACK/NACK information transmitting SC-FDMA symbols, the multiplexing capacity of the RS is smaller than that of the ACK/NACK information.

For example, in the case of the general CP, the ACK/NACK information may be transmitted in four symbols and not 4 but 3 orthogonal spreading codes are used for the ACK/NACK information and the reason is that the number of RS transmitting symbols is limited to 3 to use only 3 orthogonal spreading codes for the RS.

In the case of the subframe of the general CP, when 3 symbols are used for transmitting the RS and 4 symbols are used for transmitting the ACK/NACK information in one slot, for example, if 6 CSs in the frequency domain and 3 orthogonal cover (OC) resources may be used, HARQ acknowledgement responses from a total of 18 different terminals may be multiplexed in one PUCCH RB. In the case of the subframe of the extended CP, when 2 symbols are used for transmitting the RS and 4 symbols are used for transmitting the ACK/NACK information in one slot, for example, if 6 CSs in the frequency domain and 2 orthogonal cover (OC) resources may be used, the HARQ acknowledgement responses from a total of 12 different terminals may be multiplexed in one PUCCH RB.

Next, PUCCH format 1 is described. The scheduling request (SR) is transmitted by a scheme in which the terminal requests scheduling or does not request the scheduling. An SR channel reuses an ACK/NACK channel structure in PUCCH format 1a/1b and is configured by an on-off keying (OOK) scheme based on an ACK/NACK channel design. In the SR channel, the reference signal is not transmitted. Therefore, in the case of the general CP, a sequence having a length of 7 is used and in the case of the extended CP, a sequence having a length of 6 is used. Different cyclic shifts (CSs) or orthogonal covers (OCs) may be allocated to the SR and the ACK/NACK. That is, the terminal transmits the HARQ ACK/NACK through a resource allocated for the SR in order to transmit a positive SR. The terminal transmits the HARQ ACK/NACK through a resource allocated for the ACK/NACK in order to transmit a negative SR.

Next, an enhanced-PUCCH (e-PUCCH) format is described. An e-PUCCH may correspond to PUCCH format 3 of an LTE-A system. A block spreading technique may be applied to ACK/NACK transmission using PUCCH format 3.

The block spreading technique is a scheme that modulates transmission of the control signal by using the SC-FDMA scheme unlike the existing PUCCH format 1 series or 2 series. As illustrated in FIG. 8, a symbol sequence may be spread and transmitted on the time domain by using an orthogonal cover code (OCC). The control signals of the plurality of terminals may be multiplexed on the same RB by using the OCC. In the case of PUCCH format 2 described above, one symbol sequence is transmitted throughout the time domain and the control signals of the plurality of terminals are multiplexed by using the cyclic shift (CS) of the CAZAC sequence, while in the case of a block spreading based on PUCCH format (for example, PUCCH format 3), one symbol sequence is transmitted throughout the frequency domain and the control signals of the plurality of terminals are multiplexed by using the time domain spreading using the OCC.

FIG. 8 illustrates one example of generating and transmitting 5 SC-FDMA symbols during one slot in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 8, an example of generating and transmitting 5 SC-FDMA symbols (that is, data part) by using an OCC having the length of 5 (alternatively, SF=5) in one symbol sequence during one slot. In this case, two RS symbols may be used during one slot.

In the example of FIG. 8, the RS symbol may be generated from a CAZAC sequence to which a specific cyclic shift value is applied and transmitted in a type in which a predetermined OCC is applied (alternatively, multiplied) throughout a plurality of RS symbols. Further, in the example of FIG. 8, when it is assumed that 12 modulated symbols are used for each OFDM symbol (alternatively, SC-FDMA symbol) and the respective modulated symbols are generated by QPSK, the maximum bit number which may be transmitted in one slot becomes 24 bits (=12×2). Accordingly, the bit number which is transmittable by two slots becomes a total of 48 bits. When a PUCCH channel structure of the block spreading scheme is used, control information having an extended size may be transmitted as compared with the existing PUCCH format 1 series and 2 series.

General Carrier Aggregation

A communication environment considered in embodiments of the present invention includes multi-carrier supporting environments. That is, a multi-carrier system or a carrier aggregation system used in the present invention means a system that aggregates and uses one or more component carriers (CCs) having a smaller bandwidth smaller than a target band at the time of configuring a target wideband in order to support a wideband.

In the present invention, multi-carriers mean aggregation of (alternatively, carrier aggregation) of carriers and in this case, the aggregation of the carriers means both aggregation between continuous carriers and aggregation between non-contiguous carriers. Further, the number of component carriers aggregated between the downlink and the uplink may be differently set. A case in which the number of downlink component carriers (hereinafter, referred to as ‘DL CC’) and the number of uplink component carriers (hereinafter, referred to as ‘UL CC’) are the same as each other is referred to as symmetric aggregation and a case in which the number of downlink component carriers and the number of uplink component carriers are different from each other is referred to as asymmetric aggregation. The carrier aggregation may be used mixedly with a term such as the carrier aggregation, the bandwidth aggregation, spectrum aggregation, or the like.

The carrier aggregation configured by combining two or more component carriers aims at supporting up to a bandwidth of 100 MHz in the LTE-A system. When one or more carriers having the bandwidth than the target band are combined, the bandwidth of the carriers to be combined may be limited to a bandwidth used in the existing system in order to maintain backward compatibility with the existing IMT system. For example, the existing 3GPP LTE system supports bandwidths of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz and a 3GPP LTE-advanced system (that is, LTE-A) may be configured to support a bandwidth larger than 20 MHz by using on the bandwidth for compatibility with the existing system. Further, the carrier aggregation system used in the preset invention may be configured to support the carrier aggregation by defining a new bandwidth regardless of the bandwidth used in the existing system.

The LTE-A system uses a concept of the cell in order to manage a radio resource.

The carrier aggregation environment may be called a multi-cell environment. The cell is defined as a combination of a pair of a downlink resource (DL CC) and an uplink resource (UL CC), but the uplink resource is not required. Therefore, the cell may be constituted by only the downlink resource or both the downlink resource and the uplink resource. When a specific terminal has only one configured serving cell, the cell may have one DL CC and one UL CC, but when the specific terminal has two or more configured serving cells, the cell has DL CCs as many as the cells and the number of UL CCs may be equal to or smaller than the number of DL CCs.

Alternatively, contrary to this, the DL CC and the UL CC may be configured. That is, when the specific terminal has multiple configured serving cells, a carrier aggregation environment having UL CCs more than DL CCs may also be supported. That is, the carrier aggregation may be appreciated as aggregation of two or more cells having different carrier frequencies (center frequencies). Herein, the described ‘cell’ needs to be distinguished from a cell as an area covered by the base station which is generally used.

The cell used in the LTE-A system includes a primary cell (PCell) and a secondary cell (SCell. The P cell and the S cell may be used as the serving cell. In a terminal which is in an RRC_CONNECTED state, but does not have the configured carrier aggregation or does not support the carrier aggregation, only one serving constituted by only the P cell is present. On the contrary, in a terminal which is in the RRC_CONNECTED state and has the configured carrier aggregation, one or more serving cells may be present and the P cell and one or more S cells are included in all serving cells.

The serving cell (P cell and S cell) may be configured through an RRC parameter. PhysCellId as a physical layer identifier of the cell has integer values of 0 to 503. SCellIndex as a short identifier used to identify the S cell has integer values of 1 to 7. ServCellIndex as a short identifier used to identify the serving cell (P cell or S cell) has the integer values of 0 to 7. The value of 0 is applied to the P cell and SCellIndex is previously granted for application to the S cell. That is, a cell having a smallest cell ID (alternatively, cell index) in ServCellIndex becomes the P cell.

The P cell means a cell that operates on a primary frequency (alternatively, primary CC). The terminal may be used to perform an initial connection establishment process or a connection re-establishment process and may be designated as a cell indicated during a handover process. Further, the P cell means a cell which becomes the center of control associated communication among serving cells configured in the carrier aggregation environment. That is, the terminal may be allocated with and transmit the PUCCH only in the P cell thereof and use only the P cell to acquire the system information or change a monitoring procedure. An evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRAN) may change only the P cell for the handover procedure to the terminal supporting the carrier aggregation environment by using an RRC connection reconfiguration message (RRCConnectionReconfigutaion) message of an upper layer including mobile control information (mobilityControlInfo).

The S cell means a cell that operates on a secondary frequency (alternatively, secondary CC). Only one P cell may be allocated to a specific terminal and one or more S cells may be allocated to the specific terminal. The S cell may be configured after RRC connection establishment is achieved and used for providing an additional radio resource. The PUCCH is not present in residual cells other than the P cell, that is, the S cells among the serving cells configured in the carrier aggregation environment. The E-UTRAN may provide all system information associated with a related cell which is in an RRC_CONNECTED state through a dedicated signal at the time of adding the S cells to the terminal that supports the carrier aggregation environment. A change of the system information may be controlled by releasing and adding the related S cell and in this case, the RRC connection reconfiguration (RRCConnectionReconfigutaion) message of the upper layer may be used. The E-UTRAN may perform having different parameters for each terminal rather than broadcasting in the related S cell.

After an initial security activation process starts, the E-UTRAN adds the S cells to the P cell initially configured during the connection establishment process to configure a network including one or more S cells. In the carrier aggregation environment, the P cell and the S cell may operate as the respective component carriers. In an embodiment described below, the primary component carrier (PCC) may be used as the same meaning as the P cell and the secondary component carrier (SCC) may be used as the same meaning as the S cell.

FIG. 9 illustrates examples of a component carrier and carrier aggregation in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 9(a) illustrates a single carrier structure used in an LTE system. The component carrier includes the DL CC and the UL CC. One component carrier may have a frequency range of 20 MHz.

FIG. 9(b) illustrates a carrier aggregation structure used in the LTE system. In the case of FIG. 9(b), a case is illustrated, in which three component carriers having a frequency magnitude of 20 MHz are combined. Each of three DL CCs and three UL CCs is provided, but the number of DL CCs and the number of UL CCs are not limited. In the case of carrier aggregation, the terminal may simultaneously monitor three CCs, and receive downlink signal/data and transmit uplink signal/data.

When N DL CCs are managed in a specific cell, the network may allocate M (M≤N) DL CCs to the terminal. In this case, the terminal may monitor only M limited DL CCs and receive the DL signal. Further, the network gives L (L≤M≤N) DL CCs to allocate a primary DL CC to the terminal and in this case, UE needs to particularly monitor L DL CCs. Such a scheme may be similarly applied even to uplink transmission.

A linkage between a carrier frequency (alternatively, DL CC) of the downlink resource and a carrier frequency (alternatively, UL CC) of the uplink resource may be indicated by an upper-layer message such as the RRC message or the system information. For example, a combination of the DL resource and the UL resource may be configured by a linkage defined by system information block type 2 (SIB2). In detail, the linkage may mean a mapping relationship between the DL CC in which the PDCCH transporting a UL grant and a UL CC using the UL grant and mean a mapping relationship between the DL CC (alternatively, UL CC) in which data for the HARQ is transmitted and the UL CC (alternatively, DL CC) in which the HARQ ACK/NACK signal is transmitted.

Cross Carrier Scheduling

In the carrier aggregation system, in terms of scheduling for the carrier or the serving cell, two types of a self-scheduling method and a cross carrier scheduling method are provided. The cross carrier scheduling may be called cross component carrier scheduling or cross cell scheduling.

The cross carrier scheduling means transmitting the PDCCH (DL grant) and the PDSCH to different respective DL CCs or transmitting the PUSCH transmitted according to the PDCCH (UL grant) transmitted in the DL CC through other UL CC other than a UL CC linked with the DL CC receiving the UL grant.

Whether to perform the cross carrier scheduling may be UE-specifically activated or deactivated and semi-statically known for each terminal through the upper-layer signaling (for example, RRC signaling).

When the cross carrier scheduling is activated, a carrier indicator field (CIF) indicating through which DL/UL CC the PDSCH/PUSCH the PDSCH/PUSCH indicated by the corresponding PDCCH is transmitted is required. For example, the PDCCH may allocate the PDSCH resource or the PUSCH resource to one of multiple component carriers by using the CIF. That is, the CIF is set when the PDSCH or PUSCH resource is allocated to one of DL/UL CCs in which the PDCCH on the DL CC is multiply aggregated. In this case, a DCI format of LTE-A Release-8 may extend according to the CIF. In this case, the set CIF may be fixed to a 3-bit field and the position of the set CIF may be fixed regardless of the size of the DCI format. Further, a PDCCH structure (the same coding and the same CCE based resource mapping) of the LTE-A Release-8 may be reused.

On the contrary, when the PDCCH on the DL CC allocates the PDSCH resource on the same DL CC or allocates the PUSCH resource on a UL CC which is singly linked, the CIF is not set. In this case, the same PDCCH structure (the same coding and the same CCE based resource mapping) and DCI format as the LTE-A Release-8 may be used.

When the cross carrier scheduling is possible, the terminal needs to monitor PDCCHs for a plurality of DCIs in a control region of a monitoring CC according to a transmission mode and/or a bandwidth for each CC. Therefore, a configuration and PDCCH monitoring of a search space which may support monitoring the PDCCHs for the plurality of DCIs are required.

In the carrier aggregation system, a terminal DL CC aggregate represents an aggregate of DL CCs in which the terminal is scheduled to receive the PDSCH and a terminal UL CC aggregate represents an aggregate of UL CCs in which the terminal is scheduled to transmit the PUSCH. Further, a PDCCH monitoring set represents a set of one or more DL CCs that perform the PDCCH monitoring. The PDCCH monitoring set may be the same as the terminal DL CC set or a subset of the terminal DL CC set. The PDCCH monitoring set may include at least any one of DL CCs in the terminal DL CC set. Alternatively, the PDCCH monitoring set may be defined separately regardless of the terminal DL CC set. The DL CCs included in the PDCCH monitoring set may be configured in such a manner that self-scheduling for the linked UL CC is continuously available. The terminal DL CC set, the terminal UL CC set, and the PDCCH monitoring set may be configured UE-specifically, UE group-specifically, or cell-specifically.

When the cross carrier scheduling is deactivated, the deactivation of the cross carrier scheduling means that the PDCCH monitoring set continuously means the terminal DL CC set and in this case, an indication such as separate signaling for the PDCCH monitoring set is not required. However, when the cross carrier scheduling is activated, the PDCCH monitoring set is preferably defined in the terminal DL CC set. That is, the base station transmits the PDCCH through only the PDCCH monitoring set in order to schedule the PDSCH or PUSCH for the terminal.

FIG. 10 illustrates one example of a subframe structure depending on cross carrier scheduling in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 10, a case is illustrated, in which three DL CCs are associated with a DL subframe for an LTE-A terminal and DL CC′A′ is configured as a PDCCH monitoring DL CC. When the CIF is not used, each DL CC may transmit the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH thereof without the CIF. On the contrary, when the CIF is used through the upper-layer signaling, only one DL CC ‘A’ may transmit the PDCCH scheduling the PDSCH thereof or the PDSCH of another CC by using the CIF. In this case, DL CC ‘B’ and ‘C’ in which the PDCCH monitoring DL CC is not configured does not transmit the PDCCH.

ACK/NACK Multiplexing Method

In a situation in which the terminal simultaneously needs to transmit multiple ACKs/NACKs corresponding to multiple data units received from an eNB, an ACK/NACK mulplexign method based on PUCCH resource selection may be considered in order to maintain a single-frequency characteristic of the ACK/NACK signal and reduce ACK/NACK transmission power.

Together with ACK/NACK multiplexing, contents of ACK/NACK responses for multiple data units may be identified by combining a PUCCH resource and a resource of QPSK modulation symbols used for actual ACK/NACK transmission.

For example, when one PUCCH resource may transmit 4 bits and four data units may be maximally transmitted, an ACK/NACK result may be identified in the eNB as shown in Table 3 given below.

TABLE 3 HARQ-ACK(0), HARQ-ACK(1), HARQ-ACK(2), HARQ-ACK(3) n_(PUCCH) ⁽¹⁾ b(0), b(1) ACK, ACK, ACK, ACK n_(PUCCH, 1) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 1 ACK, ACK, ACK, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 1) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 0 NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, NACK, DTX n_(PUCCH, 2) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 1 ACK, ACK, NACK/DTX, ACK n_(PUCCH, 1) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 0 NACK, DTX, DTX, DTX n_(PUCCH, 0) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 0 ACK, ACK, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 1) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 0 ACK, NACK/DTX, ACK, ACK n_(PUCCH, 3) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 1 NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, n_(PUCCH, 3) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 1 NACK ACK, NACK/DTX, ACK, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 2) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 1 ACK, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, ACK n_(PUCCH, 0) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 1 ACK, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 0) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 1 NACK/DTX, ACK, ACK, ACK n_(PUCCH, 3) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 1 NACK/DTX, NACK, DTX, DTX n_(PUCCH, 1) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 0 NACK/DTX, ACK, ACK, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 2) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 0 NACK/DTX, ACK, NACK/DTX, ACK n_(PUCCH, 3) ⁽¹⁾ 1, 0 NACK/DTX, ACK, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 1) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 1 NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, ACK, ACK n_(PUCCH, 3) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 1 NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, ACK, NACK/DTX n_(PUCCH, 2) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 0 NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, NACK/DTX, ACK n_(PUCCH, 3) ⁽¹⁾ 0, 0 DTX, DTX, DTX, DTX N/A N/A

In Table 3 given above, HARQ-ACK(i) represents an ACK/NACK result for an i-th data unit. In Table 3 given above, discontinuous transmission (DTX) means that there is no data unit to be transmitted for the corresponding HARQ-ACK(i) or that the terminal may not detect the data unit corresponding to the HARQ-ACK(i).

According to Table 3 given above, a maximum of four PUCCH resources (n_(PUCCH,0) ⁽¹⁾, n_(PUCCH,1) ⁽¹⁾, n_(PUCCH,2) ⁽¹⁾, and n_(PUCCH,3) ⁽¹⁾) are provided and b(0) and b(1) are two bits transmitted by using a selected PUCCH.

For example, when the terminal successfully receives all of four data units, the terminal transmits 2 bits (1,1) by using n_(PUCCH,1) ⁽¹⁾.

When the terminal fails to decoding in first and third data units and succeeds in decoding in second and fourth data units, the terminal transmits bits (1,0) by using n_(PUCCH,3) ⁽¹⁾.

In ACK/NACK channel selection, when there is at least one ACK, the NACK and the DTX are coupled with each other. The reason is that a combination of the PUCCH resource and the QPSK symbol may not all ACK/NACK states. However, when there is no ACK, the DTX is decoupled from the NACK.

In this case, the PUCCH resource linked to the data unit corresponding to one definite NACK may also be reserved to transmit signals of multiple ACKs/NACKs.

Semi-Persistent Scheduling

Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) is a scheduling scheme that allocates the resource to the terminal to be persistently maintained during a specific time interval.

When a predetermined amount of data is transmitted for a specific time like a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), since the control information need not be transmitted every data transmission interval for the resource allocation, the waste of the control information may be reduced by using the SPS scheme. In a so-called semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) method, a time resource domain in which the resource may be allocated to the terminal is preferentially allocated.

In this case, in a semi-persistent allocation method, a time resource domain allocated to a specific terminal may be configured to have periodicity. Then, a frequency resource domain is allocated as necessary to complete allocation of the time-frequency resource. Allocating the frequency resource domain may be designated as so-called activation. When the semi-persistent allocation method is used, since the resource allocation is maintained during a predetermined period by one-time signaling, the resource need not be repeatedly allocated, and as a result, signaling overhead may be reduced.

Thereafter, since the resource allocation to the terminal is not required, signaling for releasing the frequency resource allocation may be transmitted from the base station to the terminal Releasing the allocation of the frequency resource domain may be designated as deactivation.

In current LTE, in which subframes the SPS is first transmitted/received through radio resource control (RRC) signaling for the SPS for the uplink and/or downlink is announced to the terminal. That is, the time resource is preferentially designated among the time and frequency resources allocated for the SPS through the RRC signaling. In order to announce a usable subframe, for example, a period and an offset of the subframe may be announced. However, since the terminal is allocated with only the time resource domain through the RRC signaling, even though the terminal receives the RRC signaling, the terminal does not immediately perform transmission and reception by the SPS and the terminal allocates the frequency resource domain as necessary to complete the allocation of the time-frequency resource. Allocating the frequency resource domain may be designated as deactivation and releasing the allocation of the frequency resource domain may be designated as deactivation.

Therefore, the terminal receives the PDCCH indicating the activation and thereafter, allocate the frequency resource according to RB allocation information included in the received PDCCH and applies modulation and code rate depending on modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information to start transmission and reception according to the period and the offset of the subframe allocated through the RRC signaling.

Next, when the terminal receives the PDCCH announcing the deactivation from the base station, the terminal stops transmission and reception. When the terminal receives the PDCCH indicating the activation or reactivation after stopping the transmission and reception, the terminal resumes the transmission and reception again with the period and the offset of the subframe allocated through the RRC signaling by using the RC allocation, the MCS, and the like designated by the PDCCH. That is, the time resource is performed through the RRC signaling, but the signal may be actually transmitted and received after receiving the PDCCH indicating the activation and reactivation of the SPS and the signal transmission and reception stop after receiving the PDCCH indicating the deactivation of the SPS.

When all conditions described below are satisfied, the terminal may validate a PDCCH including an SPS indication. First, a CRC parity bit added for a PDCCH payload needs to be scrambled with an SPS C-RNTI and second, a new data indicator (NDI) field needs to be set to 0. Herein, in the case of DCI formats 2, 2A, 2B, and 2C, the new data indicator field indicates one activated transmission block.

In addition, when each field used in the DCI format is set according to Tables 4 and 5 given below, the validation is completed. When the validation is completed, the terminal recognizes that received DCI information is valid SPS activation or deactivation (alternatively, release). On the contrary, when the validation is not completed, the terminal recognizes that a non-matching CRC is included in the received DCI format.

Table 4 shows a field for validating the PDCCH indicating the SPS activation.

TABLE 4 DCI format 0 DCI format 1/1A DCI format 2/2A/2B TPC command for set to ‘00’ N/A N/A scheduled PUSCH Cyclic shift DM RS set to ‘000’ N/A N/A Modulation and coding MSB is set to ‘0’ N/A N/A scheme and redundancy version HARQ process number N/A FDD: set to ‘000’ FDD: set to ‘000’ TDD: set to ‘0000’ TDD: set to ‘0000’ Modulation and coding N/A MSB is set to ‘0’ For the enabled transport scheme block: MSB is set to ‘0’ Redundancy version N/A set to ‘00’ For the enabled transport block: set to ‘00’

Table 5 shows a field for validating the PDCCH indicating the SPS deactivation (alternatively, release).

TABLE 5 DCI format 0 DCI format 1A TPC command for scheduled set to ‘00’ N/A PUSCH Cyclic shift DM RS set to ‘000’ N/A Modulation and coding scheme set to ‘11111’ N/A and redundancy version Resource block assignment and Set to all ‘1’s N/A hopping resource allocation HARQ process number N/A FDD: set to ‘000’ TDD: set to ‘0000’ Modulation and coding scheme N/A set to ‘11111’ Redundancy version N/A set to ‘00’ Resource block assignment N/A Set to all ‘1’s

When the DCI format indicates SPS downlink scheduling activation, a TPC command value for the PUCCH field may be used as indexes indicating four PUCCH resource values set by the upper layer.

PUCCH Piggybacking

FIG. 11 illustrates one example of transport channel processing of a UL-SCH in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In a 3GPP LTE system (=E-UTRA, Rel. 8), in the case of the UL, single carrier transmission having an excellent peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) or cubic metric (CM) characteristic which influences the performance of a power amplifier is maintained for efficient utilization of the power amplifier of the terminal. That is, in the case of transmitting the PUSCH of the existing LTE system, data to be transmitted may maintain the single carrier characteristic through DFT-precoding and in the case of transmitting the PUCCH, information is transmitted while being loaded on a sequence having the single carrier characteristic to maintain the single carrier characteristic. However, when the data to be DFT-precoded is non-contiguously allocated to a frequency axis or the PUSCH and the PUCCH are simultaneously transmitted, the single carrier characteristic deteriorates. Therefore, when the PUSCH is transmitted in the same subframe as the transmission of the PUCCH as illustrated in FIG. 11, uplink control information (UCI) to be transmitted to the PUCCH is transmitted (piggyback) together with data through the PUSCH.

Since the PUCCH and the PUSCH may not be simultaneously transmitted as described above, the existing LTE terminal uses a method that multiplexes uplink control information (UCI) (CQI/PMI, HARQ-ACK, RI, and the like) to the PUSCH region in a subframe in which the PUSCH is transmitted.

As one example, when the channel quality indicator (CQI) and/or precoding matrix indicator (PMI) needs to be transmitted in a subframe allocated to transmit the PUSCH, UL-SCH data and the CQI/PMI are multiplexed after DFT-spreading to transmit both control information and data. In this case, the UL-SCH data is rate-matched by considering a CQI/PMI resource. Further, a scheme is used, in which the control information such as the HARQ ACK, the RI, and the like punctures the UL-SCH data to be multiplexed to the PUSCH region.

FIG. 12 illustrates one example of a signal processing process of an uplink share channel of a transport channel in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Herein, the signal processing process of the uplink share channel (hereinafter, referred to as “UL-SCH”) may be applied to one or more transport channels or control information types.

Referring to FIG. 12, the UL-SCH transfers data to a coding unit in the form of a transport block (TB) once every a transmission time interval (TTI).

A CRC parity bit p₀, p₁, p₂, p₃, . . . , p_(L−1) is attached to a bit of the transport block received from the upper layer (S1202). In this case, A represents the size of the transport block and L represents the number of parity bits. Input bits to which the CRC is attached are shown in b₀, b₁, b₂, b₃, . . . , b_(B−1). In this case, B represents the number of bits of the transport block including the CRC.

b₀, b₁, b₂, b₃, . . . , b_(B−1) is segmented into multiple code blocks (CBs) according to the size of the TB and the CRC is attached to multiple segmented CBs (S1204). Bits after the code block segmentation and the CRC attachment are shown in c_(r0), c_(r1), c_(r2), c_(r3), . . . , c_(r(K) _(r) ⁻¹⁾. Herein, r represents No. (r=0, . . . , C−1) of the code block and Kr represents the bit number depending on the code block r. Further, C represents the total number of code blocks.

Subsequently, channel coding is performed (S1206). Output bits after the channel coding are shown in d_(r0) ^((i)),d_(r1) ^((i)),d_(r2) ^((i)),d_(r3) ^((i)), . . . ,d_(r(D) _(r) ⁻¹⁾ ^((i)). In this case, i represents an encoded stream index and may have a value of 0, 1, or 2. Dr represents the number of bits of the i-th encoded stream for the code block r. r represents the code block number (r=0, . . . , C−1) and C represents the total number of code blocks. Each code block may be encoded by turbo coding.

Subsequently, rate matching is performed (S1208). Bits after the rate matching are shown in e_(r0),e_(r1),e_(r2),e_(r3), . . . ,e_(r(E) _(r) ⁻¹⁾. In this case, r represents the code block number (r=0, . . . , C−1) and C represents the total number of code blocks. Er represents the number of rate-matched bits of the r-th code block.

Subsequently, concatenation among the code blocks is performed again (S1210). Bits after the concatenation of the code blocks is performed are shown in f₀,f₁,f₂,f₃, . . . ,f_(G−1). In this case, G represents the total number of bits encoded for transmission and when the control information is multiplexed with the UL-SCH, the number of bits used for transmitting the control information is not included.

Meanwhile, when the control information is transmitted in the PUSCH, channel coding of the CQI/PMI, the RI, and the ACK/NACK which are the control information is independently performed (S1214, S1216, and S1218). Since different encoded symbols are allocated for transmitting each control information, the respective control information has different coding rates.

In time division duplex (TDD), as an ACK/NACK feedback mode, two modes of ACK/NACK bundling and ACK/NACK multiplexing are supported by an upper-layer configuration. ACK/NACK information bits for the ACK/NACK bundling are constituted by 1 bit or 2 bits and ACK/NACK information bits for the ACK/NACK multiplexing are constituted by 1 to 4 bits.

After the concatenation among the code blocks in step S134, encoded bits f₀,f₁,f₂,f₃, . . . ,f_(G−1) of the UL-SCH data and encoded bits q₀,q₁,q₂,q₃, . . . ,q_(N) _(L) _(·Q) _(CQi) ⁻¹ of the CQI/PMI are multiplexed (S125). A multiplexed result of the data and the CQI/PMI is shown in g ₀,g ₁,g ₂,g ₃, . . . ,g _(H′−1). In this case, g _(i) (i=0, . . . , H′−1) represents a column vector having a length of (Q_(m)·N_(L)). H=(G+N_(L)·Q_(CQi)) and H′=H/(N_(L)·Q_(m)).

N_(L) represents the number of layers mapped to a UL-SCH transport block and H represents the total number of encoded bits allocated to N_(L) transport layers mapped with the transport block for the UL-SCH data and the CQI/PMI information.

Subsequently, the multiplexed data and CQI/PMI, a channel encoded RI, and the ACK/NACK are channel-interleaved to generate an output signal (S1220).

MIMO(Multi-Input Multi-Output)

An MIMO technology uses multiple transmitting (Tx) antennas and multiple receiving (Rx) antennas by breaking from generally one transmitting antenna and one receiving antenna up to now. In other words, the MIMO technology is a technology for achieving capacity increment or capability enhancement by using a multiple input multiple output antenna at a transmitter side or a receiver side of the wireless communication system. Hereinafter, “MIMO” will be referred to as “multiple input multiple output antenna”.

In more detail, the MIMO technology does not depend on one antenna path in order to receive one total message and completes total data by collecting a plurality of data pieces received through multiple antennas. Consequently, the MIMO technology may increase a data transfer rate within in a specific system range and further, increase the system range through a specific data transfer rate.

In next-generation mobile communication, since a still higher data transfer rate than the existing mobile communication is required, it is anticipated that an efficient multiple input multiple output technology is particularly required. In such a situation, an MIMO communication technology is a next-generation mobile communication technology which may be widely used in a mobile communication terminal and a relay and attracts a concern as a technology to overcome a limit of a transmission amount of another mobile communication according to a limit situation due to data communication extension, and the like.

Meanwhile, the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology among various transmission efficiency improvement technologies which have been researched in recent years as a method that may epochally improve a communication capacity and transmission and reception performance without additional frequency allocation or power increment has the largest attention in recent years.

FIG. 13 is a configuration diagram of a general multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system.

Referring to FIG. 13, when the number of transmitting antennas increases to NT and the number of receiving antennas increases to NR at the same time, since a theoretical channel transmission capacity increases in proportion to the number of antennas unlike a case using multiple antennas only in a transmitter or a receiver, a transfer rate may be improved and frequency efficiency may be epchally improved. In this case, the transfer rate depending on an increase in channel transmission capacity may theoretically increase to a value acquired by multiplying a maximum transfer rate (Ro) in the case using one antenna by a rate increase rate (Ri) given below.

R _(i)=min(N _(T) ,N _(R))   [Equation 1]

That is, for example, in an MIMO communication system using four transmitting antennas and four receiving antennas, a transfer rate which is four times higher than a single antenna system may be acquired.

Such an MIMO antenna technology may be divided into a spatial diversity scheme increasing transmission reliability by using symbols passing through various channel paths and a spatial multiplexing scheme improving the transfer rate by simultaneously transmitting multiple data symbols by using multiple transmitting antennas. Further, a research into a scheme that intends to appropriately acquire respective advantages by appropriately combining two schemes is also a field which has been researched in recent years.

The respective schemes will be described below in more detail.

First, the spatial diversity scheme includes a space-time block coding series and a space-time Trelis coding series scheme simultaneously using a diversity gain and a coding gain. In general, the Trelis is excellent in bit error rate enhancement performance and code generation degree of freedom, but the space-time block code is simple in operational complexity. In the case of such a spatial diversity gain, an amount corresponding to a multiple (NT×NR) of the number (NT) of transmitting antennas and the number (NR) of receiving antennas may be acquired.

Second, the spatial multiplexing technique is a method that transmits different data arrays in the respective transmitting antennas and in this case, mutual interference occurs among data simultaneously transmitted from the transmitter in the receiver. The receiver receives the data after removing the interference by using an appropriate signal processing technique. A noise removing scheme used herein includes a maximum likelihood detection (MLD) receiver, a zero-forcing (ZF) receiver, a minimum mean square error (MMSE) receiver, a diagonal-bell laboratories layered space-time (D-BLAST), a vertical-bell laboratories layered space-time), and the like and in particular, when channel information may be known in the transmitter side, a singular value decomposition (SVD) scheme, and the like may be used.

Third, a technique combining the space diversity and the spatial multiplexing may be provided. When only the spatial diversity gain is acquired, the performance enhancement gain depending on an increase in diversity degree is gradually saturated and when only the spatial multiplexing gain is acquired, the transmission reliability deteriorates in the radio channel. Schemes that acquire both two gains while solving the problem have been researched and the schemes include a space-time block code (Double-STTD), a space-time BICM (STBICM), and the like.

In order to describe a communication method in the MIMO antenna system described above by a more detailed method, when the communication method is mathematically modeled, the mathematical modeling may be shown as below.

First, it is assumed that NT transmitting antennas and NR receiving antennas are present as illustrated in FIG. 13.

First, in respect to a transmission signal, when NT transmitting antennas are provided, since the maximum number of transmittable information is NT, NT may be expressed as a vector given below.

S=[S₁,S₂, . . . ,S_(N) _(T) ]^(T)   [Equation 2]

Meanwhile, transmission power may be different in the respective transmission information s1, s2, . . . , sNT and in this case, when the respective transmission power is P1, P2, . . . , PNT, the transmission information of which the transmission power is adjusted may be expressed as a vector given below.

ŝ=[ŝ₁,ŝ₂, . . . ,ŝ_(N) _(T) ]^(T)=[P₁s₁,P₂s₂, . . . ,P_(N) _(T) s_(N) _(T) ]^(T)   [Equation 3]

Further, ŝ may be expressed as described below as a diagonal matrix P of the transmission power.

$\begin{matrix} {\hat{s} = {{\begin{bmatrix} P_{1} & \; & \; & 0 \\ \; & P_{2} & \; & \; \\ \; & \; & \ddots & \; \\ 0 & \; & \; & P_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} s_{1} \\ s_{2} \\ \vdots \\ s_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}} = {Ps}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

Meanwhile, the information vector ŝ of which the transmission power is adjusted is multiplied by a weight matrix W to constitute NT transmission signals x1, x2, . . . , xNT which are actually transmitted. Herein, the weight matrix serves to appropriately distribute the transmission information to the respective antennas according to a transmission channel situation, and the like. The transmission signals x1, x2, . . . , xNT may be expressed as below by using a vector x.

$\begin{matrix} {x = {\quad{\begin{bmatrix} x_{1} \\ x_{2} \\ \vdots \\ x_{i} \\ \vdots \\ x_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix} = {{\begin{bmatrix} w_{11} & w_{12} & \ldots & w_{1N_{T}} \\ w_{21} & w_{22} & \ldots & w_{2N_{T}} \\ \vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\ w_{i\; 1} & w_{i\; 2} & \ldots & w_{{iN}_{T}} \\ \vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\ w_{N_{T}1} & w_{N_{T}2} & \ldots & w_{N_{T}N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} {\hat{s}}_{1} \\ {\hat{s}}_{2} \\ \vdots \\ {\hat{s}}_{j} \\ \vdots \\ {\hat{s}}_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}} = {{W\hat{s}} = {WPs}}}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 5} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

Herein, wij represents a weight between the i-th transmitting antenna and j-th transmission information and W represents the weight as the matrix. The matrix W is called a weight matrix or a precoding matrix.

Meanwhile, the transmission signal x described above may be divided into transmission signals in a case using the spatial diversity and a case using the spatial multiplexing.

In the case using the spatial multiplexing, since different signals are multiplexed and sent, all elements of an information vector s have different values, while when the spatial diversity is used, since the same signal is sent through multiple channel paths, all of the elements of the information vector s have the same value.

Of course, a method mixing the spatial multiplexing and the spatial diversity may also be considered. That is, for example, a case may also be considered, which transmits the same signal by using the spatial diversity through three transmitting antennas and different signals are sent by the spatial multiplexing through residual transmitting antennas.

Next, when NR receiving antennas are provided, received signals y1, y2, . . . , yNR of the respective antennas are expressed as a vector y as described below.

y=[y₁,y₂, . . . ,y_(N) _(R) ]^(T)   [Equation 6]

Meanwhile, in the case of modeling the channel in the MIMO antenna communication system, respective channels may be distinguished according to transmitting and receiving antenna indexes and a channel passing through a receiving antenna i from a transmitting antenna j will be represented as hij. Herein, it is noted that in the case of the order of the index of hij, the receiving antenna index is earlier and the transmitting antenna index is later.

The multiple channels are gathered into one to be expressed even as vector and matrix forms. An example of expression of the vector will be described below.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a channel from multiple transmitting antennas to one receiving antenna.

As illustrated in FIG. 14, a channel which reaches receiving antenna I from a total of NT transmitting antennas may be expressed as below.

h_(i) ^(T)=[h_(i1),h_(i2), . . . ,h_(iN) _(T) ]  [Equation 7]

Further, all of channels passing through NR receiving antennas from NT transmitting antennas may be shown as below through matrix expression shown in Equation given above.

$\begin{matrix} {H = {\begin{bmatrix} h_{1}^{T} \\ h_{2}^{T} \\ \vdots \\ h_{i}^{T} \\ \vdots \\ h_{N_{R}}^{T} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} h_{11} & h_{12} & \ldots & h_{1N_{T}} \\ h_{21} & h_{22} & \ldots & h_{2N_{T}} \\ \vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\ h_{i\; 1} & h_{i\; 2} & \ldots & h_{{iN}_{T}} \\ \vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\ h_{N_{R}1} & h_{N_{R}2} & \ldots & h_{N_{R}N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 8} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

Meanwhile, since additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is added after passing through a channel matrix H given above in an actual channel, white noises n1, n2, . . . , nNR added to NR receiving antennas, respectively are expressed as below.

n=[n₁,n₂, . . . ,n_(N) _(R) ]^(T)   [Equation 9]

Each of the transmission signal, the reception signal, the channel, and the white noise in the MIMO antenna communication system may be expressed through a relationship given below by modeling the transmission signal, the reception signal, the channel, and the white noise.

$\begin{matrix} {y = {\begin{bmatrix} y_{1} \\ y_{2} \\ \vdots \\ y_{i} \\ \vdots \\ y_{N_{R}} \end{bmatrix} = {{{\begin{bmatrix} h_{11} & h_{12} & \ldots & h_{1N_{T}} \\ h_{21} & h_{22} & \ldots & h_{2N_{T}} \\ \vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\ h_{i\; 1} & h_{i\; 2} & \ldots & h_{{iN}_{T}} \\ \vdots & \; & \ddots & \; \\ h_{N_{R}1} & h_{N_{R}2} & \ldots & h_{N_{R}N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} x_{1} \\ x_{2} \\ \vdots \\ x_{j} \\ \vdots \\ x_{N_{T}} \end{bmatrix}} + \begin{bmatrix} n_{1} \\ n_{2} \\ \vdots \\ n_{i} \\ \vdots \\ n_{N_{R}} \end{bmatrix}} = {{Hx} + n}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 10} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

The numbers of rows and columns of the channel matrix H representing the state of the channel are determined by the numbers of transmitting and receiving antennas. In the case of the channel matrix H, the number of rows becomes equivalent to NR which is the number of receiving antennas and the number of columns becomes equivalent to NR which is the number of transmitting antennas. That is, the channel matrix H becomes an NR×NR matrix.

In general, a matrix rank is defined to the minimum number among the number of independent rows or columns Therefore, a matrix rank may not be larger than the number of rows or columns Mathematically, for example, a rank H of a channel matrix H is limited as follows.

rank(H)≤min(N _(T) ,N _(R))   [Equation 11]

Further, when the matrix is subjected to Eigen value decomposition, the rank may be defined as not 0 but the number of Eigen values among the Eigen values. By a similar method, when the rank is subjected to singular value decomposition, the rank may be defined as not 0 but the number of singular values. Accordingly, a physical meaning of the rank in the channel matrix may be the maximum number which may send different information in a given channel.

In the present specification, a ‘rank’ for MIMO transmission represents the number of paths to independently transmit the signal at a specific time and in a specific frequency resource and ‘the number of layers’ represents the number of signal streams transmitted through each path. In general, since the transmitter side transmits layers of the number corresponding to the number of ranks used for transmitting the signal, the rank has the same meaning as the number layers if not particularly mentioned.

Reference Signal (RS)

In the wireless communication system, since the data is transmitted through the radio channel, the signal may be distorted during transmission. In order for the receiver side to accurately receive the distorted signal, the distortion of the received signal needs to be corrected by using channel information. In order to detect the channel information, a signal transmitting method know by both the transmitter side and the receiver side and a method for detecting the channel information by using an distortion degree when the signal is transmitted through the channel are primarily used. The aforementioned signal is referred to as a pilot signal or a reference signal (RS).

When the data is transmitted and received by using the MIMO antenna, a channel state between the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna need to be detected in order to accurately receive the signal. Therefore, the respective transmitting antennas need to have individual reference signals.

The downlink reference signal includes a common RS (CRS) shared by all terminals in one cell and a dedicated RS (DRS) for a specific terminal. Information for demodulation and channel measurement may be provided by using the reference signals.

The receiver side (that is, terminal) measures the channel state from the CRS and feeds back the indicators associated with the channel quality, such as the channel quality indicator (CQI), the precoding matrix index (PMI), and/or the rank indicator (RI) to the transmitting side (that is, base station). The CRS is also referred to as a cell-specific RS. On the contrary, a reference signal associated with a feed-back of channel state information (CSI) may be defined as CSI-RS.

The DRS may be transmitted through resource elements when data demodulation on the PDSCH is required. The terminal may receive whether the DRS is present through the upper layer and is valid only when the corresponding PDSCH is mapped. The DRS may be referred to as the UE-specific RS or the demodulation RS (DMRS).

FIG. 15 illustrates a reference signal pattern mapped to a downlink resource block pair in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 15, as a wise in which the reference signal is mapped, the downlink resource block pair may be expressed by one subframe in the timedomain×12 subcarriers in the frequency domain. That is, one resource block pair has a length of 14 OFDM symbols in the case of a normal cyclic prefix (CP) (FIG. 15a ) and a length of 12 OFDM symbols in the case of an extended cyclic prefix (CP) (FIG. 15b ). Resource elements (REs) represented as ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’ in a resource block lattice mean the positions of the CRSs of antenna port indexes ‘0’, ‘1’, ‘2’, and ‘3’, respectively and resource elements represented as ‘D’ means the position of the DRS.

Hereinafter, when the CRS is described in more detail, the CRS is used to estimate a channel of a physical antenna and distributed in a whole frequency band as the reference signal which may be commonly received by all terminals positioned in the cell. Further, the CRS may be used to demodulate the channel quality information (CSI) and data.

The CRS is defined as various formats according to an antenna array at the transmitter side (base station). The 3GPP LTE system (for example, release-8) supports various antenna arrays and a downlink signal transmitting side has three types of antenna arrays of three single transmitting antennas, two transmitting antennas, and four transmitting antennas. When the base station uses the single transmitting antenna, a reference signal for a single antenna port is arrayed. When the base station uses two transmitting antennas, reference signals for two transmitting antenna ports are arrayed by using a time division multiplexing (TDM) scheme and/or a frequency division multiplexing (FDM) scheme. That is, different time resources and/or different frequency resources are allocated to the reference signals for two antenna ports which are distinguished from each other.

Moreover, when the base station uses four transmitting antennas, reference signals for four transmitting antenna ports are arrayed by using the TDM and/or FDM scheme. Channel information measured by a downlink signal receiving side (terminal) may be used to demodulate data transmitted by using a transmission scheme such as single transmitting antenna transmission, transmission diversity, closed-loop spatial multiplexing, open-loop spatial multiplexing, or multi-user MIMO.

In the case where the MIMO antenna is supported, when the reference signal is transmitted from a specific antenna port, the reference signal is transmitted to the positions of specific resource elements according to a pattern of the reference signal and not transmitted to the positions of the specific resource elements for another antenna port. That is, reference signals among different antennas are not duplicated with each other.

A rule of mapping the CRS to the resource block is defined as below.

$\begin{matrix} {{k = {{6m} + {\left( {v + v_{shift}} \right){mod}\; 6}}}{l = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix} {0,{N_{symb}^{DL} - 3}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} \in \left\{ {0,1} \right\}} \\ 1 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} \in \left\{ {2,3} \right\}} \end{matrix}m} = 0},1,\ldots \mspace{14mu},{{{2 \cdot N_{RB}^{DL}} - {1m^{\prime}}} = {{m + N_{RB}^{{{ma}\; x},{DL}} - {N_{RB}^{DL}v}} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} 0 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} = 0}} \\ 3 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{0\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} \neq 0}} \\ 3 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{1\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} = 0}} \\ 0 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = {{1\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} l} \neq 0}} \\ {3\left( {n_{s}{mod}\; 2} \right)} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = 2} \\ {3 + {3\left( {n_{s}{mod}\; 2} \right)}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} p} = 3} \end{matrix}v_{shift}} = {N_{ID}^{cell}{mod}\; 6}} \right.}}} \right.}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 12} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

In Equation 12, k and l represent the subcarrier index and the symbol index, respectively and p represents the antenna port. N_(symb) ^(DL) represents the number of OFDM symbols in one downlink slot and N_(RB) ^(DL) represents the number of radio resources allocated to the downlink. ns represents a slot index and, N_(ID) ^(cell) represents a cell ID. mod represents an modulo operation. The position of the reference signal varies depending on the v_(shift) value in the frequency domain. Since v_(shift) is subordinated to the cell ID, the position of the reference signal has various frequency shift values according to the cell.

In more detail, the position of the CRS may be shifted in the frequency domain according to the cell in order to improve channel estimation performance through the CRS. For example, when the reference signal is positioned at an interval of three subcarriers, reference signals in one cell are allocated to a 3k-th subcarrier and a reference signal in another cell is allocated to a 3k+1-th subcarrier. In terms of one antenna port, the reference signals are arrayed at an interval of six resource elements in the frequency domain and separated from a reference signal allocated to another antenna port at an interval of three resource elements.

In the time domain, the reference signals are arrayed at a constant interval from symbol index 0 of each slot. The time interval is defined differently according to a cyclic shift length. In the case of the normal cyclic shift, the reference signal is positioned at symbol indexes 0 and 4 of the slot and in the case of the extended CP, the reference signal is positioned at symbol indexes 0 and 3 of the slot. A reference signal for an antenna port having a maximum value between two antenna ports is defined in one OFDM symbol. Therefore, in the case of transmission of four transmitting antennas, reference signals for reference signal antenna ports 0 and 1 are positioned at symbol indexes 0 and 4 (symbol indexes 0 and 3 in the case of the extended CP) and reference signals for antenna ports 2 and 3 are positioned at symbol index 1 of the slot. The positions of the reference signals for antenna ports 2 and 3 in the frequency domain are exchanged with each other in a second slot.

Hereinafter, when the DRS is described in more detail, the DRS is used for demodulating data. A precoding weight used for a specific terminal in the MIMO antenna transmission is used without a change in order to estimate a channel associated with and corresponding to a transmission channel transmitted in each transmitting antenna when the terminal receives the reference signal.

The 3GPP LTE system (for example, release-8) supports a maximum of four transmitting antennas and a DRS for rank 1 beamforming is defined. The DRS for the rank 1 beamforming also means a reference signal for antenna port index 5.

A rule of mapping the DRS to the resource block is defined as below. Equation 13 shows the case of the normal CP and Equation 14 shows the case of the extended CP.

$\begin{matrix} {{k = {{\left( k^{\prime} \right){mod}\; N_{sc}^{RB}} + {N_{sc}^{RB} \cdot n_{PRB}}}}{k^{\prime} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} {{4m^{\prime}} + v_{shift}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} \in \left\{ {2,3} \right\}} \\ {{4m^{\prime}} + {\left( {2 + v_{shift}} \right){mod}\; 4}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} \in \left\{ {5,6} \right\}} \end{matrix}l} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} 3 & {l^{\prime} = 0} \\ 6 & {l^{\prime} = 1} \\ 2 & {l^{\prime} = 2} \\ 5 & {l^{\prime} = 3} \end{matrix}l^{\prime}} = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix} {0,1} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 0} \\ {2,3} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 1} \end{matrix}m^{\prime}} = 0},1,\ldots \mspace{14mu},{{{3N_{RB}^{PDSCH}} - {1v_{shift}}} = {N_{ID}^{cell}{mod}\; 3}}} \right.} \right.} \right.}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 13} \right\rbrack \\ {{k = {{\left( k^{\prime} \right){mod}\; N_{sc}^{RB}} + {N_{sc}^{RB} \cdot n_{PRB}}}}{k^{\prime} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} {{3m^{\prime}} + v_{shift}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} = 4} \\ {{3m^{\prime}} + {\left( {2 + v_{shift}} \right){mod}\; 3}} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} l} = 1} \end{matrix}l} = \left\{ {{\begin{matrix} 4 & {l^{\prime} \in \left\{ {0,2} \right\}} \\ 1 & {l^{\prime} = 1} \end{matrix}l^{\prime}} = \left\{ {{{\begin{matrix} 0 & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 0} \\ {1,2} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu} n_{s}{mod}\; 2} = 1} \end{matrix}m^{\prime}} = 0},1,\ldots \mspace{14mu},{{{4N_{RB}^{PDSCH}} - {1v_{shift}}} = {N_{ID}^{cell}{mod}\; 3}}} \right.} \right.} \right.}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 14} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

In Equations 12 to 14 given above, k and p represent the subcarrier index and the antenna port, respectively. N_(RB) ^(DL), ns, and N_(ID) ^(cell) represent the number of RBs, the number of slot indexes, and the number of cell IDs allocated to the downlink, respectively. The position of the RS varies depending on the v_(shift) value in terms of the frequency domain.

In Equations 13 and 14, k and l represent the subcarrier index and the symbol index, respectively and p represents the antenna port. N_(sc) ^(RB) represents the size of the resource block in the frequency domain and is expressed as the number of subcarriers. n_(PRB) represents the number of physical resource blocks. N_(RB) ^(PDSCH) represents a frequency band of the resource block for the PDSCH transmission. ns represents the slot index and N_(ID) ^(cell) represents the cell ID. mod represents the modulo operation. The position of the reference signal varies depending on the v_(shift) value in the frequency domain. Since v_(shift) is subordinated to the cell ID, the position of the reference signal has various frequency shift values according to the cell.

Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)

The SRS is primarily used for the channel quality measurement in order to perform frequency-selective scheduling and is not associated with transmission of the uplink data and/or control information. However, the SRS is not limited thereto and the SRS may be used for various other purposes for supporting improvement of power control and various start-up functions of terminals which have not been scheduled. One example of the start-up function may include an initial modulation and coding scheme (MCS), initial power control for data transmission, timing advance, and frequency semi-selective scheduling. In this case, the frequency semi-selective scheduling means scheduling that selectively allocates the frequency resource to the first slot of the subframe and allocates the frequency resource by pseudo-randomly hopping to another frequency in the second slot.

Further, the SRS may be used for measuring the downlink channel quality on the assumption that the radio channels between the uplink and the downlink are reciprocal. The assumption is valid particularly in the time division duplex in which the uplink and the downlink share the same frequency spectrum and are divided in the time domain.

Subframes of the SRS transmitted by any terminal in the cell may be expressed by a cell-specific broadcasting signal. A 4-bit cell-specific ‘srsSubframeConfiguration’ parameter represents 15 available subframe arrays in which the SRS may be transmitted through each radio frame. By the arrays, flexibility for adjustment of the SRS overhead is provided according to a deployment scenario.

A 16-th array among them completely turns off a switch of the SRS in the cell and is suitable primarily for a serving cell that serves high-speed terminals.

FIG. 16 illustrates an uplink subframe including a sounding reference signal symbol in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

Referring to FIG. 16, the SRS is continuously transmitted through a last SC FDMA symbol on the arrayed subframes. Therefore, the SRS and the DMRS are positioned at different SC-FDMA symbols.

The PUSCH data transmission is not permitted in a specific SC-FDMA symbol for the SRS transmission and consequently, when sounding overhead is highest, that is, even when the SRS symbol is included in all subframes, the sounding overhead does not exceed approximately 7%.

Each SRS symbol is generated by a base sequence (random sequence or a sequence set based on Zadoff-Ch (ZC)) associated with a given time wise and a given frequency band and all terminals in the same cell use the same base sequence. In this case, SRS transmissions from a plurality of terminals in the same cell in the same frequency band and at the same time are orthogonal to each other by different cyclic shifts of the base sequence to be distinguished from each other.

SRS sequences from different cells may be distinguished for each other by allocating different base sequences to respective cells, but orthogonality among different base sequences is not assured.

COMP (Coordinated Multi-Point Transmission and Reception)

According to a demand of LTE-advanced, CoMP transmission is proposed in order to improve the performance of the system. The CoMP is also called co-MIMO, collaborative MIMO, network MIMO, and the like. It is anticipated that the CoMP will improves the performance of the terminal positioned at a cell edge and improve an average throughput of the cell (sector).

In general, inter-cell interference decreases the performance and the average cell (sector) efficiency of the terminal positioned at the cell edge in a multi-cell environment in which a frequency reuse index is 1. In order to alleviate the inter-cell interference, the LTE system adopts a simple passive method such as fractional frequency reuse (FFR) in the LTE system so that the terminal positioned at the cell edge has appropriate performance efficiency in an interference-limited environment. However, a method that reuses the inter-cell interference or alleviates the inter-cell interference as a signal (desired signal) which the terminal needs to receive is more preferable instead of reduction of the use of the frequency resource for each cell. The CoMP transmission scheme may be adopted in order to achieve the aforementioned object.

The CoMP scheme which may be applied to the downlink may be classified into a joint processing (JP) scheme and a coordinated scheduling/beamforming (CS/CB) scheme.

In the JP scheme, the data may be used at each point (base station) in a CoMP wise. The CoMP wise means a set of base stations used in the CoMP scheme. The JP scheme may be again classified into a joint transmission scheme and a dynamic cell selection scheme.

The joint transmission scheme means a scheme in which the signal is simultaneously transmitted through a plurality of points which are all or fractional points in the CoMP wise. That is, data transmitted to a single terminal may be simultaneously transmitted from a plurality of transmission points. Through the joint transmission scheme, the quality of the signal transmitted to the terminal may be improved regardless of coherently or non-coherently and interference with another terminal may be actively removed.

The dynamic cell selection scheme means a scheme in which the signal is transmitted from the single point through the PDSCH in the CoMP wise. That is, data transmitted to the single terminal at a specific time is transmitted from the single point and data is not transmitted to the terminal at another point in the CoMP wise. The point that transmits the data to the terminal may be dynamically selected.

According to the CS/CB scheme, the CoMP wise performs beamforming through coordination for transmitting the data to the single terminal. That is, the data is transmitted to the terminal only in the serving cell, but user scheduling/beamforming may be determined through coordination of a plurality of cells in the CoMP wise.

In the case of the uplink, CoMP reception means receiving the signal transmitted by the coordination among a plurality of points which are geographically separated. The CoMP scheme which may be applied to the uplink may be classified into a joint reception (JR) scheme and the coordinated scheduling/beamforming (CS/CB) scheme.

The JR scheme means a scheme in which the plurality of points which are all or fractional points receives the signal transmitted through the PDSCH in the CoMP wise. In the CS/CB scheme, only the single point receives the signal transmitted through the PDSCH, but the user scheduling/beamforming may be determined through the coordination of the plurality of cells in the CoMP wise.

Relay Node (RN)

The relay node transfers data transmitted and received between the base station and the terminal through two different links (a backhaul link and an access link). The base station may include a donor cell. The relay node is wirelessly connected to a wireless access network through the donor cell.

Meanwhile, in respect to the use of a band (spectrum) of the relay node, a case in which the backhaul link operates in the same frequency band as the access link is referred to as ‘in-band’ and a case in which the backhaul link and the access link operate in different frequency bands is referred to as ‘out-band’. In both the cases of the in-band and the out-band, a terminal (hereinafter, referred to as a legacy terminal) that operates according to the existing LTE system (for example, release-8) needs to be able to access the donor cell.

The relay node may be classified into a transparent relay node or a non-transparent relay node according to whether the terminal recognizing the relay node. Transparent means a case in which it may not be recognized whether the terminal communicates with the network through the relay node and non-transparent means a case in which it is recognized whether the terminal communicates with the network through the relay node.

In respect to control of the relay node, the relay node may be divided into a relay node which is constituted as a part of the donor cell or a relay node that autonomously controls the cell.

The relay node which is constituted as a part of the donor cell may have a relay node identity (ID), but does not have a cell identity thereof.

When at least a part of radio resource management (RRM) is controlled by a base station to which the donor cell belongs, even though residual parts of the RRM are positioned at the relay node, the relay node is referred to as the relay node which is constituted as a part of the donor cell. Preferably, the relay node may support the legacy terminal. For example, various types including smart repeaters, decode-and-forward relay nodes, L2 (second layer) relay nodes, and the like and a type-2 relay node correspond to the relay node.

In the case of the relay node that autonomously controls the cell, the relay node controls one or a plurality of cells and unique physical layer cell identities are provided to the respective cells controlled by the relay node. Further, the respective cells controlled by the relay node may use the same RRM mechanism. In terms of the terminal, there is no difference between accessing the cell controlled by the relay node and accessing a cell controlled by a general base station. The cell controlled by the relay node may support the legacy terminal. For example, a self-backhauling relay node, an L3 (third layer) relay node, a type-1 relay node, and a type-la relay node correspond to the relay node.

The type-1 relay node as the in-band relay node controls a plurality of cells and the plurality of respective cells are recognized as separate cells distinguished from the donor cell in terms of the terminal. Further, the plurality of respective cells may have physical cell IDs (they are defined in the LTE release-8) and the relay node may transmit a synchronization channel, the reference signal, and the like thereof. In the case of a single-cell operation, the terminal may receive scheduling information and an HARQ feedback directly from the relay node and transmit control channels (scheduling request (SR), CQI, ACK/NACK, and the like) thereof to the relay node. Further, the type-1 relay node is shown as a legacy base station (a base station that operates according to the LTE release-8 system) to the legacy terminals (terminal that operate according to the LTE release-8 system). That is, the type-1 relay node has the backward compatibility. Meanwhile, the terminals that operate according to the LTE-A A system recognize the type-1 relay node as a base station different from the legacy base station to provide performance improvement.

The type-1a relay node has the same features as the type-1 relay node including operating as the out-band The operation of the type-1a relay node may be configured so that an influence on an L1 (first layer) operation is minimized or is not present.

The type-2 relay node as the in-band relay node does not have a separate physical cell ID, and as a result, a new cell is not formed. The type-2 relay node is transparent with respect to the legacy terminal and the legacy terminal may not recognize the presence of the type-2 relay node. The type-2 relay node may transmit the PDSCH, but at least does not transmit the CRS and the PDCCH.

Meanwhile, in order for the relay node to operate as the in-band, some resources in the time-frequency space needs to be reserved for the backhaul link and the resources may be configured not to be used for the access link. This is referred to as resource partitioning.

A general principle in the resource partitioning in the relay node may be described as below. Backhaul downlink and access downlink may be multiplexed in the time division multiplexing scheme on one carrier frequency (that is, only one of the backhaul downlink and the access downlink is activated at a specific time). Similarly, backhaul uplink and access uplink may be multiplexed in the time division multiplexing scheme on one carrier frequency (that is, only one of the backhaul uplink and the access uplink is activated at a specific time).

In the backhaul link multiplexing in the FDD, backhaul downlink transmission may be performed in a downlink frequency band and backhaul uplink transmission may be performed in an uplink frequency band. In the backhaul link multiplexing in the TDD, THE backhaul downlink transmission may be performed in the downlink subframe of the base station and the relay node and the backhaul uplink transmission may be performed in the uplink subframe of the base station and the relay node.

In the case of the in-band relay node, for example, when both backhaul downlink reception from the base station and access downlink transmission to the terminal are performed in the same frequency band, signal interference may occurs at a receiver side of the relay node by a signal transmitted from a transmitter side of the relay node. That is, the signal interference or RF jamming may occur at an RF front-end of the relay node. Similarly, even when both the backhaul uplink transmission to the base station and the access uplink reception from the terminal are performed in the same frequency band, the signal interference may occur.

Therefore, in order for the relay node to simultaneously transmit and receive the signal in the same frequency band, when sufficient separation (for example, the transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna are installed to be significantly geographically spaced apart from each other like installation on the ground and underground) between a received signal and a transmitted signal is not provided, it is difficult to implement the transmission and reception of the signal.

As one scheme for solving a problem of the signal interference, the relay node operates not transmit the signal to the terminal while receiving the signal from the donor cell. That is, a gap is generated in transmission from the relay node to the terminal and the terminal may be configured not to expect any transmission from the relay node during the gap. The gap may be configured to constitute a multicast broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) subframe.

FIG. 17 illustrates a structure of relay resource partitioning in the wireless communication system to which the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 17, in the case of a first subframe as a general subframe, a downlink (that is, access downlink) control signal and downlink data are transmitted from the relay node and in the case of a second subframe as the MBSFN subframe, the control signal is transmitted from the relay node from the terminal in the control region of the downlink subframe, but no transmission is performed from the relay node to the terminal in residual regions. Herein, since the legacy terminal expects transmission of the PDCCH in all downlink subframes (in other words, since the relay node needs to support legacy terminals in a region thereof to perform a measurement function by receiving the PDCCH every subframe), the PDCCH needs to be transmitted in all downlink subframes for a correct operation of the legacy terminal. Therefore, eve on a subframe (second subframe) configured for downlink (that is, backhaul downlink) transmission from the base station to the relay node, the relay does not receive the backhaul downlink but needs to perform the access downlink transmission in first N (N=1, 2, or 3) OFDM symbol intervals of the subframe. In this regard, since the PDCCH is transmitted from the relay node to the terminal in the control region of the second subframe, the backward compatibility to the legacy terminal, which is served by the relay node may be provided. In residual regions of the second subframe, the relay node may receive transmission from the base station while no transmission is performed from the relay node to the terminal. Therefore, through the resource partitioning scheme, the access downlink transmission and the backhaul downlink reception may not be simultaneously performed in the in-band relay node.

The second subframe using the MBSFN subframe will be described in detail. The control region of the second subframe may be referred to as a relay non-hearing interval. The relay non-hearing interval means an interval in which the relay node does not receive the backhaul downlink signal and transmits the access downlink signal. The interval may be configured by the OFDM length of 1, 2, or 3 as described above. In the relay node non-hearing interval, the relay node may perform the access downlink transmission to the terminal and in the residual regions, the relay node may receive the backhaul downlink from the base station. In this case, since the relay node may not simultaneously perform transmission and reception in the same frequency band, It takes a time for the relay node to switch from a transmission mode to a reception mode. Therefore, in a first partial interval of a backhaul downlink receiving region, a guard time (GT) needs to be set so that the relay node switches to the transmission/reception mode. Similarly, even when the relay node operates to receive the backhaul downlink from the base station and transmit the access downlink to the terminal, the guard time for the reception/transmission mode switching of the relay node may be set. The length of the guard time may be given as a value of the time domain and for example, given as a value of k (k≥1) time samples (Ts) or set to the length of one or more OFDM symbols. Alternatively, when the relay node backhaul downlink subframes are consecutively configured or according to a predetermines subframe timing alignment relationship, a guard time of a last part of the subframe may not be defined or set. The guard time may be defined only in the frequency domain configured for the backhaul downlink subframe transmission in order to maintain the backward compatibility (when the guard time is set in the access downlink interval, the legacy terminal may not be supported). In the backhaul downlink reception interval other than the guard time, the relay node may receive the PDCCH and the PDSCH from the base station. This may be expressed as a relay (R)-PDCCH and a relay-PDSCH (R-PDSCH) in a meaning of a relay node dedicated physical channel.

Channel State Information (CSI) Feed-Back

The MIMO scheme may be divided into an open-loop scheme and a closed-loop scheme. The open-loop MIMO scheme means that the transmitter side performs MIMO transmission without a feed-back of the channel state information from the MIMO receiver side. The closed-loop MIMO scheme means that the transmitter side performs the MIMO transmission by receiving the feed-back of the channel state information from the MIMO receiver side. In the closed-loop MIMO scheme, each of the transmitter side and the receiver side may perform the beamforming based on the channel state information in order to acquire a multiplexing gain of the MIMO transmitting antenna. The transmitter side (for example, the base station) may allocate an uplink control channel or an uplink share channel to the receiver side (for example, the terminal).

The channel state information (CSI) which is fed back may include the rank indicator (RI), the precoding matrix index (PMI), and the channel quality indicator (CQI).

The RI is information on the rank of the channel. The rank of the channel means the maximum number of layers (alternatively, streams) which may send different information through the same time-frequency resource. Since a rank value is primary determined by long-time fading of the channel, the RI may be generally fed back according to a longer period (that is, less frequently) than the PMI and the CQI.

The PMI is information on the precoding matrix used for transmission from the transmitter side and a value acquired by reflecting spatial characteristics of the channel. Precoding means mapping the transmission layer to the transmitting antenna and a layer-antenna mapping relationship may be determined by a precoding matrix. The PMI corresponds to a precoding matrix index of the base station, which the terminal prefers to based on a measurement value (metric) such as a signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR), or the like. In order to reduce feed-back overhead of precoding information, a scheme may be used, in which the transmitter side and the receiver side previously share a codebook including various precoding matrices and feed back only an index indicating a specific precoding matrix.

The CQI is information indicating the channel quality or a channel intensity. The CQI may be expressed as a predetermined MCS combination. That is, the CQI which is fed back indicates a corresponding modulation scheme and a corresponding code rate. In general, the CQI becomes a value acquired by reflecting a received SINR which may be acquired when the base station configures a spatial channel by using the PMI.

In the system (for example, LTE-A system) supporting the extended antenna configuration, acquiring additional multi-user diversity by using a multi-user-MIMO (MU-MIMO) scheme is considered. In the MU-MIMO scheme, since an interference channel between terminals multiplexed in an antenna domain is present, when the base station performs downlink transmission by using the channel state information which one terminal among the multi users feeds back, the interference in another terminal needs to be prevented. Therefore, channel state information having higher accuracy needs to be fed back than a single-user-MIMO (SU-MIMO) scheme in order to correctly perform the MU-MIMO operation.

A new CSI feed-back scheme that enhances the CSI constituted by the RI, the PMI, and the CQI may be adopted in order to measure and report the more accurate channel state information. For example, the precoding information which the receiver side feeds back may be indicated by combining two PMIs. One (first PMI) among two PMIs may have an attribute of a long term and/or a wideband and be designated as W1. The other one (second PMI) among two PMIs may have an attribute of a short term and/or a subband and be designated as W2. A final PMI may be determined by a combination (alternatively, function) of W1 and W2. For example, when the final PMI is referred to as W, W may be defined as W=W1*W2 or W=W2*W1.

Herein, W1 reflects average frequency and/or temporal characteristics of the channel In other words, W may be defined as the channel state information reflecting a characteristic of a long term channel on the time, reflecting a characteristic of a wideband channel on the frequency, or reflecting the characteristics of the long term channel on the time and the wideband channel on the frequency. In order to express the characteristics of W1 in brief, W1 is referred to as the channel state information (alternatively, long term-wideband PMI) of the long term and wideband attributes.

Meanwhile, W2 reflects a relatively more instantaneous channel characteristic than W1. In other words, W2 may be defined as the channel state information reflecting a characteristic of a short-term channel on the time, reflecting a characteristic of a subband channel on the frequency, or reflecting the characteristics of the short term channel on the time and the subband channel on the frequency. In order to express the characteristics of W2 in brief, W2 is referred to as the channel state information (alternatively, short term-subband PMI) of the short term and subband attributes.

In order to determine one final precoding matrix W from the information (for example, W1 and W2) of two different attributes indicating the channel state, separate codebooks (that is, a first codebook for W1 and a second codebook for W2) constituted by the precoding matrixes indicating the channel information of the respective attributes need to be configured. A type of the codebook configured as above may be referred to as a hierarchical codebook. Further, determining a codebook to be finally used by using the hierarchical codebook may be referred to as hierarchical codebook transformation.

In the case of using the code book, higher-accuracy channel feed-back is possible than in the case of using a single codebook. Single-cell MU-MIMO and/or multi-cell coordinated communication may be supported by using the high-accuracy channel feed-back.

Enhanced PMI for MU-MIMO or CoMP

In a next-generation communication standard such as LTE-A, in order to achieve high transmission rate, transmission schemes such as MU-MIMO and CoMP were proposed. In order to implement the improved transmission schemes, the UE needs to feedback complicated and various CSIs to the base station.

For example, in the MU-MIMO, when UE-A selects the PMI, a CSI feedback scheme which uploads desired PMI of the UE-A and the PMI (hereinafter, referred to as best companion PMI (BCPMI)) of the UE scheduled with the UE-A.

That is, in the precoding matrix codebook, when co-scheduled UE is used as a precoder, the BCPMI which gives less interference to the UE-A is calculated and additionally fed-back to the base station.

The base station MU-MIMO-schedules another UE preferring UE-A and best companion precoding matrix (BCPM) (precoding matrix corresponding to the BCPMI) precoding by using the information.

The BCPMI feedback scheme is divided into two of an explicit feedback and an implicit feedback according to presence and absence of the feedback payload.

First, there is the explicit feedback scheme with the feedback payload.

In the explicit feedback scheme, the UE-A determines the BCPMI in the precoding matrix codebook and then feedbacks the determined BCPMI to the base station through a control channel. As one scheme, the UE-A selects an interference signal precoding matrix in which estimated SINR is maximized in the codebook and feedbacks the selected interference signal precoding matrix as the BCPMI value.

As an advantage of the explicit feedback, the BCPMI with more effective interference removal may be selected and transmitted. The UE determines the most effective value in the interference removal as the BCPMI by assuming all the codewords in the codebook one by one as the interference beam and comparing the metric such as SINR. However, as the codebook size is increased, the candidates of the BCPMI are increased, and thus the larger feedback payload size is required.

Second, there is the explicit feedback scheme without the feedback payload.

The implicit feedback scheme is a scheme that the UE-A does not search a codeword which receives less interference in the codebook to select the searched codeword as the BCPMI, but statically determines the BCPMI corresponding to the desired PMI when the desired PMI is determined. In this case, it may be preferred that the BCPM is constituted by orthogonal vectors in the determined desired PMI.

The reason is that the desired PM is set in a direction to maximize the channel gain of the channel H in order to maximize the received SINR and thus, it is effective in mitigating the interference the interference signal is selected by avoiding in the direction of the PM. When the channel H is analyzed as the plurality of independent channels through the singular value decomposition (SVD), the BCPMI determination scheme is further justified. 4×4 channel H may be decomposed through the SVD like the following Equation 15.

$\begin{matrix} {H = {{ULV}^{H} = {{\begin{bmatrix} u_{1} & u_{2} & u_{3} & u_{4} \end{bmatrix}\begin{bmatrix} \lambda_{1} & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & \lambda_{2} & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & \lambda_{3} & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & \lambda_{4} \end{bmatrix}}\begin{bmatrix} v_{1}^{H} \\ v_{2}^{H} \\ v_{3}^{H} \\ v_{4}^{H} \end{bmatrix}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 15} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

In Equation 15, U,V are unitary matrices, ui, vi, and λ_(i), represent a 4×1 left singular vector, a 4×1 right singular vector, and a singular value of the channel H, respectively and arranged in descending order of λ_(i)>λ_(i+1). In the case of using the beamforming matrix V in the transmission terminal and the beamforming matrix U^(H) the reception terminal, all channel gains which may be theoretically obtained may be obtained without loss.

In the case of Rank 1, using the transmission beamforming vector v1 and the reception beamforming vector u1 may obtain the channel |λ₁|² to gain obtain optimal performance in terms of the SNR. For example, it is advantageous that the UE-A selects the most similar PM to v1 in the case of rank 1. Ideally, when the desired PM completely coincides with v1, the reception beam is set to u1 and the transmission beam of the interference signal is set to the PM in the orthohonal direction to completely remove the interference signal without loss in the desired signal. Actually, due to the quantization error, when the desired PM has a slight difference from v1, the transmission beam of the interference signal set in the orthogonal direction to the PM is no longer equal to the orthogonal beam to v1, and thus, the desired signal may not completely remove the interference signal without loss of the desired signal, but when the quantization error is small to help in controlling the interference signal.

As an example of the implicit feedback, in the case of using the LTE codebook, the BCPMI may be statically determined as the vector index orthogonal to the PMI.

It is assumed that the transmission antennas are four and the reception rank of the UE feedbacking the PMI is 1, three vectors orthogonal to the desired PMI are expressed as three BCPMIs.

For example, in the case of PMI=3, BCPMI=0,1,2. The PMI and the BCPMI represent the index of the 4×1 vector codeword in the codebook. The base station uses some or all as the precoder of the co-schedule UE by considering the BCPMI set (BCPMI=0,1,2) as the effective precoding index in the interference removal.

The implicit PMI has an advantage in that there is no additional feedback overhead because the desired PMI and the BCPMI set are mapped to 1:1. However, due to the quantization error of the desired PM (PM: precoding matrix corresponding to the PMI), the BCPM subordinated thereto may have optimal beam direction and error for the interference removal. When there is no quantization error, three BCPMs represent interference beam (ideal interference beam) which completely removes all the interference, but when there is the error, each BCPM occurs a difference from the ideal interference beam.

Further, the difference from the ideal interference beam of each BCPM is averagely the same, but may be different at a certain moment. For example, when desired PMI=3, it may be effective in removing the interference signal in order of BCPMI 0, 1, and 2, and the base station which does not know a relative error of BCPMI 0, 1, and 2 may communicate while the strong interference between the co-scheduled UEs is present by determining BCPMI 2 with the largest error with the ideal interference beam as the beam of the interference signal.

General D2D Communication

Generally, D2D communication is limitatively used as the term for communication between objects or object intelligent communication, but the D2D communication in the present invention may include all communication between various types of devices having a communication function such as a smart phone and a personal computer in addition to simple devices with a communication function.

FIG. 18 is a diagram for schematically describing the D2D communication in a wireless communication system to which the present invention may be applied.

FIG. 18(a) illustrates a communication scheme based on an existing base station eNB, and the UE1 may transmit the data to the base station on the uplink and the base station may transmit the data to the UE2 on the downlink. The communication scheme may be referred to as an indirect communication scheme through the base station. In the indirect communication scheme, a Un link (referred to as a backhole link as a link between base stations or a link between the base station and the repeater) and/or a Uu link (referred to as an access link as a link between the base station and the UE or a link between the repeater and the UE) which are defined in the existing wireless communication system may be related.

FIG. 18(b) illustrates a UE-to-UE communication scheme as an example of the D2D communication, and the data exchange between the UEs may be performed without passing through the base station. The communication scheme may be referred to as a direct communication scheme between devices. The D2D direct communication scheme has advantages of reducing latency and using smaller wireless resources as compared with the existing indirect communication scheme through the base station.

FIG. 19 illustrates examples of various scenarios of the D2D communication to which the method proposed in the specification may be applied.

The D2D communication scenario may be divided into (1) an out-of-coverage network, (2) a partial-coverage network, and (3) in-coverage network according to whether the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 are positioned in coverage/out-of-coverage.

The in-coverage network may be divided into an in-coverage-single-cell and an in-coverage-multi-cell according to the number of cells corresponding to the coverage of the base station.

FIG. 19(a) illustrates an example of an out-of-coverage network scenario of the D2D communication.

The out-of-coverage network scenario means perform the D2D communication between the D2D terminals without control of the base station.

In FIG. 19(a), only the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 are present and the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 may directly communicate with each other.

FIG. 19(b) illustrates an example of a partial-coverage network scenario of the D2D communication.

The partial-coverage network scenario means performing the D2D communication between the D2D terminal positioned in the network coverage and the D2D terminal positioned out of the network coverage.

In FIG. 19(b), it may be illustrated that the D2D terminal positioned in the network coverage and the D2D terminal positioned out of the network coverage communicate with each other.

FIG. 19(c) illustrates an example of the in-coverage-single-cell and FIG. 19d illustrates an example of the in-coverage-multi-cell scenario.

The in-coverage network scenario means that the D2D terminals perform the D2D communication through the control of the base station in the network coverage.

In FIG. 19(c), the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 are positioned in the same network coverage (alternatively, cell) under the control of the base station.

In FIG. 19(d), the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 are positioned in the network coverage, but positioned in different network coverages. In addition, the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 performs the D2D communication under the control of the base station managing the network coverage.

Here, the D2D communication will be described in more detail.

The D2D communication may operate in the scenario illustrated in FIG. 19, but generally operate in the network coverage and out of the network coverage. The link used for the D2D communication (direct communication between the terminals) may be referred to as D2D link, directlink, or sidelink, but for the convenience of description, the link is commonly referred to as the sidelink.

The sidelink transmission may operate in uplink spectrum in the case of the FDD and in the uplink (alternatively, downlink) subframe in the case of the TDD. For multiplexing the sidelink transmission and the uplink transmission, time division multiplexing (TDM) may be used.

The sidelink transmission and the uplink transmission do not simultaneously occur. In the uplink subframe used for the uplink transmission and the sidelink subframe which partially or entirely overlaps with UpPTS, the sidelink transmission does not occur. Alternatively, the transmission and the reception of the sidelink do not simultaneously occur.

A structure of a physical resource used in the sidelink transmission may be used equally to the structure of the uplink physical resource. However, the last symbol of the sidelink subframe is constituted by a guard period and not used in the sidelink transmission.

The sidelink subframe may be constituted by extended CP or normal CP.

The D2D communication may be largely divided into discovery, direct communication, and synchronization.

1) Discovery

The D2D discovery may be applied in the network coverage. (including inter-cell and intra-cell). Displacement of synchronous or asynchronous cells may be considered in the inter-cell coverage. The D2D discovery may be used for various commercial purposes such as advertisement, coupon issue, and finding friends to the terminal in the near area.

When the terminal 1 has a role of the discovery message transmission, the terminal 1 transmits the discovery message and the terminal 2 receives the discovery message. The transmission and the reception of the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 may be reversed. The transmission from the terminal 1 may be received by one or more terminals such as terminal 2.

The discovery message may include a single MAC PDU, and here, the single MAC PDU may include a UE ID and an application ID.

A physical sidelink discovery channel (PSDCH) may be defined as the channel transmitting the discovery message. The structure of the PSDCH channel may reuse the PUSCH structure.

A method of allocating resources for the D2D discovery may use two types Type 1 and Type 2.

In Type 1, eNB may allocate resources for transmitting the discovery message by a non-UE specific method.

In detail, a wireless resource pool for discovery transmission and reception constituted by the plurality of subframes is allocated at a predetermined period, and the discovery transmission UE transmits the next discovery message which randomly selects the specific resource in the wireless resource pool.

Such a periodic discovery resource pool may be allocated for transmitting a discovery signal with a semi-static method. Setup information of a discovery resource pool for transmitting discovery includes a discovery period, a subframe set that can use for transmitting a discovery signal within the discovery period, and resource block set information. Setup information of such a discovery resource pool may be transmitted to the terminal by superordinate layer signaling. In-coverage terminal, a discovery resource pool for discovery transmission is set by a base station and may be notified to the terminal using RRC signaling (e.g., System Information Block (SIB)).

A discovery resource pool allocated for discovery within one discovery period may be multiplexed into TDM and/or FDM with a time-frequency resource block having the same size, and a time-frequency resource block having such a same size may be referred to as a ‘discovery resource’. The discovery resource may be divided into one subframe unit and may include two physical resource blocks (PRB) per slot in each subframe. One discovery resource may be used for transmission of a discovery MAC PDU by one terminal.

Further, the terminal may repeatedly transmit a discovery signal within a discovery period for transmission of one transport block. Transmission of an MAC PDU transmitted by one terminal may be repeated (e.g., repeated four times) contiguously or non-contiguously within a discovery period (i.e., wireless resource pool). The transmitting number of a discovery signal for one transport block may be transmitted to the terminal by superordinate layer signaling.

The terminal may randomly select a first discovery resource from a discovery resource set that may be used for repeated transmission of an MAC PDU, and other discovery resources may be determined in relation to the first discovery resource. For example, a next discovery resource may be determined according to a predetermined pattern according to a position of a discovery resource in which a predetermined pattern is preset and in which the terminal first selects. Further, the terminal may randomly select each discovery resource within a discovery resource set that may be used for repeated transmission of an MAC PDU.

In type 2, a resource for transmission of a discovery message is UE specifically allocated. The type 2 is again subdivided into Type-2A and Type-2B. Type-2A is a method in which the base station allocates a resource at an every transmitting instance of a discovery message of the terminal within a discovery period, and the type 2B is a method of allocating a resource with a semi-persistent method.

In a type 2B, an RRC_CONNECTED terminal requests allocation of a resource for transmission of a D2D discovery message to the base station through RRC signaling. The base station may allocate a resource through RRC signaling. When the terminal is changed to an RRC_IDLE state or when the base station withdraws resource allocation through RRC signaling, the terminal releases a most recently allocated transmitting resource. In this way, in type 2B, a wireless resource is allocated by RRC signaling, and activation/deactivation of a wireless resource allocated by a PDCCH may be determined.

A wireless resource pool for receiving a discovery message is set by a base station, and the base station may notify the terminal of the wireless resource pool using RRC signaling (e.g., System Information Block (SIB)).

In order to receive a discovery message, a discovery message receiving terminal monitors the entire of discovery resource pools of the foregoing types 1 and 2.

2) Direct Communication

An application area of the D2D direct communication includes in-coverage and out-of-coverage, and edge-of-coverage. The D2D direct communication may be used on the purpose of public safety (PS) and the like.

When the terminal 1 has a role of the direct communication data transmission, the terminal 1 transmits direct communication data and the terminal 2 receives direct communication data. The transmission and the reception of the terminal 1 and the terminal 2 may be reversed. The direct communication transmission from the terminal 1 may be received by one or more terminals such as terminal2

The D2D discovery and the D2D communication are not associated with each other and independently defined. That is, the in groupcast and broadcast direct communication, the D2D discovery is not required. As such, when the D2D discovery and the D2D communication are independently defined, the terminals need to recognize the adjacent terminals. In other words, in the case of the groupcast and broadcast direct communication, it is not required that all of the reception terminals in the group are close to each other.

A physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) may be defined as a channel transmitting D2D direct communication data. Further, a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) may be defined as a channel transmitting control information (for example, scheduling assignment (SA) for the direct communication data transmission, a transmission format, and the like) for the D2D direct communication. The PSSCH and the PSCCH may reuse the PUSCH structure.

A method of allocating the resource for D2D direct communication may use two modes mode 1 and mode 2.

Mode 1 means a mode of scheduling a resource used for transmitting data or control information for D2D direct communication. Mode 1 is applied to in-coverage.

The eNB sets a resource pool required for D2D direct communication. Here, the resource pool required for D2D direct communication may be divided into a control information pool and a D2D data pool. When the eNB schedules the control information and the D2D data transmission resource in the pool set to the transmission D2D terminal by using the PDCCH or the ePDCCH, the transmission D2D terminal transmits the control information and the D2D data by using the allocated resource.

The transmission UE requests the transmission resource to the eNB, and the eNB schedules the control information and the resource for transmission of the D2D direct communication data. That is, in the case of mode 1, the transmission UE needs to be in an RRC_CONNECTED state in order to perform the D2D direct communication. The transmission UE transmits the scheduling request to the eNB and a buffer status report (BSR) procedure is performed so that the eNB may determine an amount of resource required by the transmission UE.

The reception UEs monitor the control information pool and may selectively decode the D2D data transmission related with the corresponding control information when decoding the control information related with the reception UEs. The reception UE may not decode the D2D data pool according to the control information decoding result.

Mode 2 means a mode in which the UE arbitrarily selects the specific resource in the resource pool for transmitting the data or the control information for D2D direct communication. In the out-of-coverage and/or the edge-of-coverage, the mode 2 is applied.

In mode 2, the resource pool for transmission of the control information and/or the resource pool for transmission of the D2D direct communication data may be pre-configured or semi-statically set. The UE receives the set resource pool (time and frequency) and selects the resource for the D2D direct communication transmission from the resource pool. That is, the UE may select the resource for the control information transmission from the control information resource pool for transmitting the control information. Further, the UE may select the resource from the data resource pool for the D2D direct communication data transmission.

In D2D broadcast communication, the control information is transmitted by the broadcasting UE. The control information explicitly and/or implicitly indicate the position of the resource for the data reception in associated with the physical channel (that is, the PSSCH) transporting the D2D direct communication data.

3) Synchronization

A D2D synchronization signal (alternatively, a sidelink synchronization signal) may be used so that the terminal obtains time-frequency synchronization. Particularly, in the case of the out-of-coverage, since the control of the eNB is impossible, new signal and procedure for synchronization establishment between terminals may be defined.

The terminal which periodically transmits the D2D synchronization signal may be referred to as a D2D synchronization source. When the D2D synchronization source is the eNB, the structure of the transmitted D2D synchronization signal may be the same as that of the PSS/SSS. When the D2D synchronization source is not the eNB (for example, the terminal or the global navigation satellite system (GNSS)), a structure of the transmitted D2D synchronization signal may be newly defined.

The D2D synchronization signal is periodically transmitted for a period of not less than 40 ms. Each terminal may have multiple physical-layer sidelink synchronization identities. The D2D synchronization signal includes a primary D2D synchronization signal (alternatively, a primary sidelink synchronization signal) and a secondary D2D synchronization signal (alternatively, a secondary sidelink synchronization signal).

Before transmitting the D2D synchronization signal, the terminal may first search the D2D synchronization source. In addition, when the D2D synchronization source is searched, the terminal may acquire the time-frequency synchronization through the D2D synchronization signal/sequence received from the searched D2D synchronization source. In addition, the corresponding terminal may transmit the D2D synchronization signal.

Hereinafter, for clarity, in D2D communication, direct communication between two devices is exemplified, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and the same principle describing in the present invention may be applied to D2D communication between a plurality of devices.

As one of the D2D discovery schemes, is a scheme (hereinafter, referred to as ‘distributed discovery’) that allows all UE to perform the discovery by a distributed scheme is provided. The scheme that performs the D2D discovery in the distributed scheme means not a scheme that does not select resource selection at one place (for example, the eNB, the UE, or the D2D scheduling device) like the centralized scheme but a scheme in which all UE selects the discovery resource by autonomously determining the resource selection by the distributed scheme and transmits and receives the discovery message.

Hereinafter, in the present specification, a signal (alternatively, message) which the UEs periodically transmit for the D2D discovery may be referred to as the discovery message, the discovery signal, a beacon, and the like. Hereinafter, the discovery message, the discovery signal, the beacon, and the like are collectively called the discovery message.

In distributed discovery, the UE may periodically allot an exclusive resource separately from a cellular resource as a resource for transmitting and receiving a discovery message. This will be described with reference to FIG. 21.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of a frame structure to which a discovery resource that may apply methods suggesting in this specification is allocated.

Referring to FIG. 20, in a distributed discovery method, a discovery subframe (i.e., ‘discovery resource pool’) 20010 for discovery is fixedly (or exclusively) allocated among an entire cellular uplink frequency-time resource, and the remaining areas are configured with existing LTE uplink wide area network (WAN) subframe area 20030. A discovery resource pool may be configured with at least one subframe.

The discovery resource pool may be periodically allocated at a predetermined time interval (i.e., ‘discovery period’). Further, the discovery resource pool may be repeatedly set within one discovery period.

In FIG. 20, a discovery resource pool is allocated with a discovery period of 10 secs, and each discovery resource pool represents an example in which 64 continuous subframes are allocated. However, a size of a time/frequency resource of a discovery period and a discovery resource pool is not limited thereto.

The UE autonomously selects a resource (i.e., ‘discovery resource’) for transmitting a discovery message thereof within an exclusively allocated discovery pool and transmits a discovery message through the selected resource. This will be described with reference to FIG. 21.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a discovery process to which methods suggesting in this specification may be applied.

Referring to FIGS. 20 and 21, a discovery method is configured with a three step procedure of resource sensing for transmission of a discovery message (S21010), resource selection for transmission of a discovery message (S21020), and discovery message transmission and reception (S21030).

First, at the resource sensing step for transmission of a discovery message (S21010), entire UEs that perform D2D discovery receives (i.e., senses) the entire of a discovery message for one period (i.e., discovery resource pool) of a D2D discovery resource with a distributed method (i.e., autonomously). For example, in FIG. 20, when it is assumed that an uplink bandwidth is 10 MHz, the entire UE receives (i.e., senses) the entire of a discovery message transmitted in N=44 RB (because an entire uplink bandwidth is 10 MHz, 6 RBs are used among total 50 RBs for PUCCH transmission.) for K=64 msec (64 subframe).

At the resource selection step for transmission of a discovery message (S21020), the UE classifies resources of a low energy level among sensed resources and randomly selects a discovery resource within a predetermined range (e.g., within subordinate x % (x=random integer, 5, 7, 10, . . . ) among the resources.

The discovery resource may be configured with at least one resource block having the same size and be multiplexed into a TDM and/or a FDM within a discovery resource pool.

At the discovery message transmission and reception step (S21030), which is a final procedure, the UE transmits and receives a discovery message based on a selected discovery resource after a discovery period (after P=10 seconds in an illustration of FIG. 20), and in a subsequent discovery period, the UE periodically transmits and receives a discovery message according to a random resource hopping pattern.

Such a D2D discovery procedure is continuously performed in an RRC_IDLE state in which the UE is not connected to the eNB as well as in an RRC_CONNECTED state in which the UE is connected to the eNB.

When considered the discovery method, entire UEs sense entire resources (i.e., discovery resource pool) in which peripheral UEs transmit and randomly selects a discovery resource in a predetermined range (e.g., within subordinate x %) among the entire resources.

D2D Resource Pool Configuration and Scheduling Assignment

FIGS. 22 and 23 are diagrams illustrating an example of a method of allocating a resource in device-to-device communication according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates an example of a configuration of a resource unit in device-to-device communication, and because an entire frequency resource is divided into the N_(F) number and the entire time resource is divided into the N_(T) number, resource units of the total N_(F)*N_(T) number are defined. Here, it may be assumed that a corresponding resource pool is repeated in a period of an N_(T) subframe.

For example, as shown in FIG. 22, one resource unit may be periodically repeatedly represented. Alternatively, in order to obtain a diversity effect in a time or frequency dimension, an index of a physical resource unit to which one logical resource unit is mapped may be sequentially changed in a predetermined pattern.

In such a resource unit structure, a resource pool may mean a resource unit set in which a terminal to transmit a D2D signal may use for transmission.

The resource pool may be subdivided into several kinds. First, the resource pool may be distinguished according to contents of a D2D signal transmitted in each resource pool. For example, contents of a D2D signal may be distinguished as follows, and a separate resource pool may be configured for each content.

-   -   Scheduling assignment (SA): A signal including information such         as a position of a resource using when each transmitting         terminal transmits a following D2D data channel and modulation         and coding scheme (MCS) necessary for demodulation of other data         channel or a MIMO transmitting method. The signal may be         transmitted by multiplexing together with D2D data in the same         resource unit, and in this case, an SA resource pool may mean a         resource pool in which SA is transmitted by multiplexing with         D2D data.     -   D2D data channel: A resource pool in which a transmitting         terminal uses for transmitting user data using a designated         resource through SA. When it is available to transmit by         multiplexing together with D2D data in the same resource unit,         in a resource pool for a D2D data channel, only a D2D data         channel of a form, except for SA information may be transmitted.         In other words, when transmitting D2D data, a D2D data channel         resource pool still may use a resource element used for         transmitting SA information in an individual resource unit         within an SA resource pool.     -   Discovery Message: A resource pool for a message that enables         adjacent terminals to find a transmitting terminal when the         transmitting terminal transmits information such as ID thereof.

In addition, when contents of a D2D signal are the same, different resource pools may be used according to a transmitting and receiving attribute of the D2D signal. For example, even in the same D2D data channel or discovery message, resource pools may be again distinguished into different resource pools according to a transmission timing determination method (e.g., transmit at a receiving time point of a synchronization reference signal or transmit by applying predetermined timing advance at a receiving time point of a synchronization reference signal) of a D2D signal, a resource allocation method (e.g., the eNB designates a transmitting resource of an individual signal to an individual transmitting terminal or an individual transmitting terminal autonomously selects an individual signal transmitting resource within a resource pool), or a signal format (e.g., the symbol number in which each D2D signal occupies in one subframe or the subframe number used for transmission of one D2D signal).

A terminal to transmit D2D data first selects an appropriate resource among SA pools and transmits SA thereof. In this case, as a reference of SA resource selection, an SA resource having no SA transmission of another terminal and/or an SA resource interworking with a resource of estimation in which data will not be transmitted in a following subframe according to SA of another terminal may be preferentially considered. Additionally, the terminal may select an SA resource interworking with a data transmitting resource estimated to have a low interference level.

In general, an SA resource pool precedes a series of D2D data channel resource pools, and a receiving terminal first attempts detection of SA and attempts to receive an interworking data resource when data is found in which the receiving terminal is to receive.

FIG. 23 illustrates a case in which an SA resource pool and a following data channel resource pool periodically represent, and hereinafter, a period in which the SA resource pool represents is referred to as an SA period.

In the present invention, when performing a relay operation in D2D communication, a method of selecting a resource for transmitting a relay signal is provided.

FIGS. 24 to 26 are diagrams illustrating an example of a relay process and a resource for relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 24 to 26, in a communication system that supports device-to-device communication, by transmitting data to a terminal outside coverage through relay, the terminal may substantially extend coverage.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 24, a UE 1 (200) and/or a UE 2 (300), which are UEs within coverage of a UE 0 (100) may receive a message transmitted by the UE 0 (100).

However, the UE 0 (100) cannot directly transmit a message to a UE 3 (400) and a UE 4 (500) existing outside coverage. Therefore, in such a case, in order to transmit a message to the UE 3 (400) and the UE 4 (500) outside coverage of the UE 0 (100), the UE 0 (100) may perform a relay operation.

In order to transmit a message to the terminal existing outside coverage, the relay operation means an operation in which terminals within coverage transfer a message.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example of the relay operation, and when the UE 0 (100) transmits a data packet to the UE 3 (400) outside coverage, the UE 0 (100) may transmit the data packet to the UE 3 (400) through the UE 1 (200).

Specifically, when the UE 0 (100) transmits the data packet to the UE 3 (400), the UE 0 (100) sets a parameter representing whether the data packet may be relayed to execution of a relay operation and transmits the data packet (S25010).

The UE 1 (200) receives the data packet and determines whether to relay the data packet is through the parameter.

When the parameter instructs a relay operation, the UE 1 (200) transmits the received data packet to the UE 3 (400), and when the parameter does not instruct a relay operation, the UE 1 (200) does not transmit the data packet to the UE 3 (400).

The UE 0 (100) may transmit a message to the terminal existing outside coverage through such a method.

FIG. 26 illustrates an example of a method of selecting a resource for a relay operation.

Referring to FIG. 26(a), the terminal may autonomously select a resource in a resource pool to relay a message. That is, UEs (UE 1, UE 2, and UE 3) that relay the same message may randomly select a resource in a resource pool to relay the same message.

However, in such a case, there is a problem that a receiving terminal that receives a message repeatedly receives the same message through different resources.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 26(b), in a resource pool, a resource for relay is allocated, and when each relay terminal transmits a message through an allocated resource, the receiving terminal may receive the same message through the same resource, thereby reducing resource waste.

The terminal may extend coverage thereof through the relay operation and increase throughput of a system. However, there is a problem that a relay operation in a situation in which a resource of terminals is not sufficient may cause resource waste and an unstable operation.

Therefore, in order to solve such a problem, the present invention provides a method of selecting a message to relay and a resource for a relay operation.

In the present invention, for convenience of description, a UE is exemplified, but the present invention is not limited thereto and may be applied to another device, for example, an eNB, a road side unit (RSU), an RRH, and a vehicle.

FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of receiving a message for relay from a plurality of terminals according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

When the method is not a method in which a specific transmitting terminal dedicatedly transmits a message to a specific receiving terminal (e.g., group cast, broad cast), as in a unicast method, as shown in FIG. 24, a plurality of UEs (UE 1, UE 2) may receive a message of the UE 0 (100).

However, alternatively, as shown in FIG. 27, the UE 1 (200) and/or the UE 2 (300) may receive a message from a plurality of UEs (UE 0-1 (100-1), UE 0-2 (100-2)).

In this case, it may be determined whether to select and relay which message from messages received from the UE 1 (200), the UE 0-1 (100-1), and UE 0-2 (100-2). Further, it may be determined whether to be relayed by which terminal of the UE 1 (200) and the UE 2 (300) and/or whether to relay through which resource.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of selectively relaying a message according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 28, when receiving a message (hereinafter, a relay message) to relay from a plurality of devices, the UE may select a specific relay message and select a resource for transmitting the specific relay message to perform a relay operation.

Specifically, when the UE receives a relay message from a plurality of devices (S28010), it may be unnecessary to relay the entire of a received plurality of relay messages or the entire of the received relay messages may not be relayed.

Therefore, the UE may determine whether the received plurality of relay messages is a message requiring a relay operation (S28020).

For example, the UE may determine whether relay is required based on sensitivity of a received message.

The UE may determine a message in which a relay operation is required among a plurality of relay messages and select at least one relay message among the selected messages (S28030).

Thereafter, the UE may select a resource or a resource set for transmitting at least one selected relay message (S28040) and transmit the at least one relay message through the selected resource or resource set (S28050).

Through such a method, the UE selects and retransmits only a relay message in which retransmission is required instead of retransmitting the entire of relay messages transmitted from a plurality of UEs, thereby efficiently performing a resource and a relay operation.

Hereinafter, each step will be described in detail.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of selecting a message for relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 29, as described at step S28010 of FIG. 28, the UE may determine a relay message requiring a relay operation among a plurality of received relay messages.

Specifically, there may be a case in which the UE, having received a relay message from a plurality of UEs transmit is not required to relay the entire of a plurality of received relay messages or may relay the entire of a plurality of received relay messages.

For example, in a cell boundary or an indoor environment, a plurality of very low reception sensitivity messages may be detected. In such a case, because a message having very low reception sensitivity has low reliability, the message may not be relayed to another UE.

Alternatively, when performing a relay operation through Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication, in a traffic jam situation, many vehicles may exist within coverage of a signal transmitted from a specific vehicle. In such a case, even if entire vehicles within coverage do not perform a relay operation, a desired signal may be transmitted and thus only a specific vehicle may perform a relay operation.

Therefore, in order to determine whether a relay operation is required, reception signal sensitivity may be limited.

In this case, the reception signal sensitivity may be a signal to be a reference or an energy value of a received message, such as Received Signal Reference power (RSRP), Synch., and Sig.

Minimum Reception Signal Sensitivity

Reception signal sensitivity of the received relay messages should be a first threshold value or more representing minimum reception signal sensitivity for relaying the relay message. That is, because there is a possibility that a UE, having received a relay message having very low reception signal sensitivity is to inaccurately demodulate, the relay message may be determined to a message having low reliability.

For example, in the UE 3 (400) of FIG. 29, because reception signal sensitivity of a message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) is smaller than the first threshold value, a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) may not be relayed.

Therefore, in order to prevent error propagation, a relay message having reception signal sensitivity of the first threshold value or less may not be relayed.

The first threshold value may be preset, may be received through signaling of a superordinate layer, or may be signaled through a physical channel.

For example, the first threshold value may be differently set according to a modulation method of the relay message.

Alternatively, when the first threshold value is not set to a specific value, the first threshold value may be regarded as a minus infinity value (-infinity).

When the first threshold value is not set or may not know, if a received relay message is accurately demodulated, a relay operation may be performed. For example, when the relay message passes through CRC check by demodulating or when the relay message should be unconditionally received like a discovery signal, a relay message may be relayed regardless of the first threshold value.

Maximum Reception Signal Sensitivity

Further, reception signal sensitivity of the received relay messages should be smaller than a second threshold value representing maximum reception signal sensitivity for relaying the relay message.

That is, when reception signal sensitivity of the relay message measured by the UE is very large, the relay message may be propagated to a distance far from a source UE and thus even if the UE does not relay the relay message, another UE apart further than the UE may successfully receive the relay message.

Therefore, the UE may not relay a relay message having a value in which the reception signal sensitivity is larger than the second threshold value.

For example, in the UE 1 (200) of FIG. 29, because reception signal sensitivity of a message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) is larger than the second threshold value, a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) may not be relayed.

In this case, the second threshold value should be the same as or larger than the first threshold value.

The second threshold value may be preset, may be received through signaling of a superordinate layer, or may be signaled through a physical channel.

For example, the second threshold value may be differently set according to a modulation method of the relay message.

Alternatively, when the first threshold value is not set to a specific value, the first threshold value may be regarded as infinity.

However, when the UE determines that relay of the relay message is required, as in a discovery signal or a specific reference signal, the UE may relay the relay message.

In FIG. 29, because an UE that receives a relay message having reception signal sensitivity between the first threshold value and the second threshold value is an UE 2 (300), the UE 2 (300) may transmit a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) to the UE 3 (400) and/or the UE 4 (500) through a relay operation.

In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the UE 0 (100), which is a source device transmits a message, the UE 0 (100) includes and transmits an identifier or a filter representing whether to relay in the message and thus the UE, having received the message may determine whether to relay the message.

For example, when the UE 0 (100) includes and transmits an indicator or a field that instructs relay in a message, the UEs, having received the message may relay the received message regardless of reception signal sensitivity, and when the UE 0 (100) includes and transmits an indicator or a field that does not instruct relay in a message, the UEs, having received the message may not relay the received message regardless of reception signal sensitivity.

In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when a destination device, i.e., a target device of the relay message is determined, a source device or a relay device may determine whether the relay message may be transmitted to the target device to determine whether to relay.

For example, when the UE 3 (400) and the UE 4 (500) of FIG. 29 are a destination of a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100), the UE 2 (300) may determine whether the relay message may be transmitted to the UE 3 (400) and the UE 4 (500) without a relay operation to determine whether to relay the relay message.

Specifically, it may be assumed that the UE 2 (300) may know that the UE 3 (400) and the UE 4 (500) are a destination of a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100), and that the UE 2 (300) may know reception signal sensitivity of a message transmitted from the UE 3 (400) and UE 4 (500).

In this case, the UE 2 (300) may compare reception signal sensitivity of the relay message and reception signal sensitivity of a message transmitted from the UE3 400 and the UE 4 (500), and when the relay message is directly transmitted from the UE 0 (100) to the UEs, the UE 2 (300) may determine whether the UEs may successfully receive the relay message to determine whether to relay.

When one UE that may not successfully receive the relay message exists, the UE 2 (300) may determine that relay of the relay message is required.

For example, the UE 2 (300) may calculate RSRP in the UE 4 (500) through Equation 16 to determine whether to relay the relay message.

RSRP_UE 0_to_UE 4=Tx_Power_UE0−PL_UE0_to_UE 4   [Equation 16]

In Equation 16, the RSRP_UE 0_to_UE 4 represents an RSRP value in the UE 4 (500), the Tx_Power_UE0 represents transmission power in the UE 0 (100), and the PL_UE0_to_UE 4 represents a loss value (first loss value) when a message is transmitted from the UE 0 (100) to the UE 4 (500).

For example, the loss value may represent a disturbance value of message transmission, such as air resistance and reflection, collision, and pass of geographic feature.

The PL_UE0_to_UE 4 may be obtained through Equations 17 and 18.

RSRP_UE0_to_UE 2=Tx_Power_UE0−PL_UE0_to_UE 2   [Equation 17]

In Equation 17, the RSRP_UE0_to_relayUE represents an RSRP value in the UE 2 (300), and the PL_UE0_to_UE 2 represents a loss value (second loss value) when a message is transmitted from the UE 0 (100) to the UE 2 (300).

$\begin{matrix} {{{RSRP\_ UE4}{\_ to}{\_ UE2}} = {{{{Tx\_ power}{\_ UE4}} - {{PL\_ UE4}{\_ to}{\_ UE2}}} = {{{Tx\_ power}{\_ UE4}} - {{PL\_ UE2}{\_ to}{\_ UE4}}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 18} \right\rbrack \end{matrix}$

In Equation 1, the RSRP_UE 4_to_UE 2 represents an RSRP value in UE 2 (300) of a message transmitted from the UE 4 (500), and the Tx_power_UE 4 represents transmission power of the UE 4 (500).

Further, the PL_UE 4_to_UE 2 and the PL_UE 2_to_UE 4 represent a loss value (third loss value) when a message is transmitted from the UE 4 (500) to the UE 2 (300) or from the UE 2 (300) to the UE 4 (500).

The UE 2 (300), which is a relay device may determine a message requiring relay among a plurality of transmitted messages through the foregoing method.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating another example of a method of selecting a message for relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 30, relay devices may select and relay messages according to a specific reference among relay messages determined in FIG. 29.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 30, when a relay message is received from a plurality of UEs, if a relay resource is sufficient, the UE 1 (200), which is a relay UE may relay entire received relay messages.

However, when a relay operation is continuously performed, signals that should receive and relay in a limited resource may increase exponentially. Therefore, in order to adjust this, the UE 1 (200) may selectively relay the received relay messages.

For example, in FIG. 30, the UE 1 (200) may select at least one of relay messages received from the UE 0-1 (100-1), the UE 0-2 (100-2), and the UE 0-3 (100-3) to relay the relay message to the UE 2 (300).

In this case, reception signal sensitivity of the selected at least one message is larger than a first threshold value and is smaller than the second threshold value shown in FIG. 29.

As a method of selecting the at least one relay message, the following three methods may exist.

-   -   Relay the entire received relay message     -   Relay a relay message having a low reception level     -   Relay a relay message having a high reception level

Hereinafter, each method will be described in detail.

Relay the Entire Received Relay Message

The UE 1 (200) may relay the entire of relay messages determined in FIG. 29 to the UE 2 (300) in a determined situation in which a relay operation is required.

For example, in an out-of-coverage area in a public safety situation, or in a situation to relay a received relay message to peripheral devices, such as an emergency situation, the UE 1 (200) may relay the entire received relay message.

Alternatively, when the number of relay messages determined through a method described in FIG. 29 is the specific number or less, the UE 1 (200) may relay the entire determined relay messages.

Alternatively, when the determined relay message includes an indicator or a field representing whether to relay, when the UE 1 (200) relays relay messages based on the indicator or the field or receives a command that instructs relay of a relay message transmitted from the UE 0-1 (100-1), the UE 0-2 (100-2), and/or the UE 0-3 (100-3), the UE 1 (200) may relay the received relay message to the UE 2 (300).

Relay a Relay Message Having a Low Receiving Level

The UE 1 (200) may preferentially relay relay messages having a low reception level among the determined relay messages.

For example, in an out-of-coverage area in a public safety situation, or in an environment of a rural area in which a communication infrastructure is not well construct and in which many UEs do not exist, a density of the UE or the infrastructure is very low, and an average distance between devices (or between infrastructures) may be very long. In such a case, for a most time, only a relay message of a low reception level may be detected.

Therefore, in such a case, the UE 1 (200) may preferentially relay messages having a low reception level among determined relay messages to the UE 2 (300).

Alternatively, when relaying a message in V2V communication, in traffic jam, a density of the vehicle is very large and thus messages having a plurality of strong signal intensity may be received from many vehicles. In such a case, when an entire signal is relayed, data traffic may be increased.

Therefore, it is necessary to select and relay some relay messages among determined relay messages. In this case, when relaying a signal having strongest signal intensity, there are many portions in which coverage between UEs is overlapped and thus a coverage extension effect or a relay effect is not large.

Therefore, in such a case, by relaying signals having low received signal strength among determined signals, a coverage extension effect may be enhanced.

The UE 1 (200) may determine a priority of relay messages transmitted from the UE 0-1 (100-1), the UE 0-2 (100-2), and/or the UE 0-3 (100-3) in order having low received signal strength to relay only the n-number signals to the UE 2 (300).

In this case, the n value may be previously defined or may be signaled through signaling or a physical channel of a superordinate stage.

Relay a Relay Message Having a High Receiving Level

The UE 1 (200) may preferentially relay relay messages having a high reception level among the determined relay messages.

When the UE 2 (300) performs a signal processing using the entire of relay messages transmitted from the UE 0-1 (100-1), the UE 0-2 (100-2), and/or the UE 0-3 (100-3) as well as a relay message transmitted from the UE 1 (200), for a diversity effect, there is a case in which a quality of relay messages directly transmitted from the UE 0-1 (100-1), UE 0-2 (100-2), and/or UE 0-3 (100-3) and from the UE 2 (300) should be guaranteed. That is, when receiving and processing a plurality of same messages, if a receiving quality difference between the received messages is very large, a diversity effect may not be large.

In such a case, the UE 1 (200) relays relay messages having high received signal strength among determined relay messages, thereby increasing a diversity effect.

The UE 1 (200) may determine a priority of relay messages transmitted from the UE 0-1 (100-1), the UE 0-2 (100-2), and/or the UE 0-3 (100-3) in order having high received signal strength to relay only the n-number signal to the UE 2 (300).

In this case, the n value may be previously defined or may be signaled through a signaling or a physical channel of a superordinate stage.

The UE 1 (200) may select one of the foregoing methods to select at least one of relay messages transmitted from the UE 0-1 (100-1), the UE 0-2 (100-2), and/or the UE 0-3 (100-3) and to relay the relay message to the UE 2 (300).

In another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the UE 1 (200) may select and relay a relay message in consideration of another parameter other than reception signal intensity of a determined relay message.

For example, the UE 1 (200) may relay or may not relay a relay message transmitted from UEs allowed through a parameter that can distinguish a device, such as ID of a source device first transmitted a relay message or ID of a destination device of a relay message.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a relay message may be selected and relayed according to a service type or a message type.

For example, only relay messages corresponding to a specific service or a specific message type may be relayed or may not be relayed.

FIGS. 31 to 33 are diagrams illustrating an example of a method of selecting a resource for relay of a message according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 31 to 34, when selecting a relay message to relay through a method described in FIGS. 29 and 30, a resource to transmit the relay message may be selected, and the relay message may be relayed through the selected resource.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 31, the UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400), which are relay devices may relay a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) to the UE 4 (500) and the UE 5 (600) through a method described in FIGS. 29 and 30.

First, a relay message in which the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) are received from the UE 0 (100) is referred to as a first message, a relay message in which the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) transmit to the UE 4 (500) and/or the UE 5 (600) is referred to as a second message, and a relay message in which the UE 4 (500) and/or the UE 5 (600) transmit is referred to as a third message.

Further, it is assumed that a message transmitted in the device-to-device communication is periodically repeatedly transmitted.

In this case, reception signal intensity of a message in which the UE 1 (200) is received from the UE 0 (100) is larger than a first threshold value, and reception signal intensity of a message in which the UE 4 (500) and the UE 5 (600) is received from the UE 0 (100) is smaller than a second threshold value and thus a relay message transmitted from the UE 0 (100) is not relayed.

The UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400) may select a resource for relaying the second message to the UE 4 (500) and/or the UE 5 (600) and transmit the second message through the selected resource.

In this case, the UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400) may select a resource to transmit the second message through one method of the following methods. In this case, SA including allocation information of the resource may exist at a position of the same resource unit or a position of a different support unit.

Selection of a Resource at the Same Position as a Position in Which the First Message is Detected

As shown in FIG. 32, the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) may transmit the second message at the same position as a position of a resource in which the UE 0 (100) transmits in a next transmitting period. In such a case, as the UE 0 (100), the UE 2 (300), and the UE 3 (400) transmit the first message and the second message at the same resource position, a Single Frequency Network (SFN) transmission effect (e.g., coverage extension) may be obtained. Further, by not using a separate resource, a resource may be efficiently used, and algorithm or signaling for resource selection is not required.

Such a resource selection method is further advantageous in an environment in which a density of the UE is high, and in order to obtain an SFN transmission effect to the maximum, a relayed message and a message to relay should be the same.

Selection of a Resource at a Position Different From a Position in Which the First Message is Detected

The UE 1 300 and/or the UE 3 (400) may transmit the second message in a region different from a resource region in which the first message is transmitted.

In this case, when there are many relay UEs, there is an effect in which the UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400), which are relay UEs of (the same hop number) performs an SFN.

For example, in FIG. 30, when relaying a relay message having a low reception level, the UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400) may select only one signal of a lowest reception level among a plurality of received relay messages and relay the signal to a related relay channel.

In this case, a resource region to transmit the second message may be previously defined or may be selected through a specific function. For example, as shown in FIG. 33, when 5 resource units (RU) exist within each transmission segment, order of a resource to be used using an index of each resource unit may be determined.

For example, when an index order of the resource unit is previously defined with a method of {0,1,2,3,4}, if the first message is detected in an index 0, the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) may transmit the second message in an index 1.

Alternatively, the relay UE may include and transmit whether to relay a message through which resource in the first message. For example, the relay UE may include and transmit index information of a resource unit to use in the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) in the first message.

That is, when transmitting the first message using an index 2, the UE 0 (100) may instruct a partial area of a resource unit corresponding to an index 1 or a resource in which the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) are to use through a control channel related to the index 1.

Alternatively, the UE 0 (100) may instruct a partial area of a resource unit corresponding to the index 1 or a resource in which each relay UE is to use through a control channel related to the index 1. That is, in FIGS. 31 to 33, the UE 0 (100) may instruct a resource unit in which the UE 2 (300), the UE 3 (400), the UE 4 (500), and/or the UE 5 (600) are to use through a partial area of a specific resource unit or a control channel related thereto.

Transmission Through a Resource Segment Different From a Resource Segment in Which the First Message is Detected

When a plurality of transmission segments may be set, as shown in FIG. 34, a set of a transmission segment in which UEs of each hop transmits a message may exist separately from a set of a transmission segment in which the UE 0 (100) transmits the first message. That is, a set of a transmission segment in which the UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400) transmit the second message and a set of a transmission segment in which the UE 4 (500) and the UE 5 (600) transmit the third message may separately exist.

In this case, constant offset may exist at sets of each transmission segment, and sets of a transmission segment may exist to correspond to the hop number.

In this case, the second message and/or the third message may be transmitted to the same position (or the same resource unit) as a position in which the first message is detected or may be transmitted to another position (or another resource unit).

Relay devices may select a resource to transmit a relay message through a method described in FIGS. 31 to 34.

In this case, information about an index order of the resource unit may be shared within coverage of a specific eNB. Therefore, UEs outside coverage of a corresponding base station may no longer relay a relayed signal.

In this case, UEs outside coverage a specific eNB may relay a message, and the entire resource selection methods may be used.

Further, when the UE 0 (100) and the UE 2 (300) to the UE 5 (600) repeatedly transmit the relay message according to a transmitting period, a repetition transmitting time or the number of the relay message may be limited.

In a relay operation of the UE 2 (300) and the UE 3 (400), while the first message is received, a relay operation may not be performed and the second message is relayed in a next transmitting period. When relaying over hop of several times, long latency may occur according to a transmitting period, unless a special limitation is not set, even if repetition transmission of the first message is terminated in the UE 0 (100), a case may occur in which the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) continues to transmit the second message.

Therefore, in order to prevent that an ineffective message is continuously propagated, transmission of the relay message under a specific condition may be terminated.

First, the UE 0 (100) first transmits the first message, and when a specific time has elapsed, repetition transmission of the first message and repetition transmission of the second message may be terminated.

For example, the specific time may be a transmitting period+α. In this case, relay UEs of a specific hop may not transmit a message by the determined repetition transmission number according to a value of the α.

When a value of the α is 0, after transmission of the first message from the UE 0 (100) is terminated, the relay UEs may not transmit a relay message.

Second, in each relay UE, a specific value representing a repetition transmitting time or the number of a relay message may be set. In this case, the specific value may be transmitted through the first message or a control channel related to the first message.

For example, the specific value may include a hop count value maintained or remained until now, a termination time value representing a time in which a relay message may be transmitted or a duration value after the first message has occurred.

In this case, the termination time value or the duration value may be a time stamp form.

For example, when the UE 0 (100) sets the hop count value to “1” and transmits the hop count value to the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400), the UE 2 (300) and UE 3 (400) may again set the hop count value to “0” and transmit the hop count value to the UE 4 (500) and/or the UE 5 (600).

In this case, because the hop count value is “0”, the UE 4 (500) and the UE 5 (600) no longer perform a relay operation.

Alternatively, when the UE 0 (100) sets the hop count value to “3” and transmits the first message, the UE 2 (300) and/or the UE 3 (400) repeatedly transmit only three times the second message and no longer repeatedly transmit the second message.

In the first method, when a value of the α is 0, an effective transmission segment T of a message may be the same as Equation 19.

T=transmitting period of UE 0×maximum repetition transmitting number−1   [Equation 19]

This may be the same as that when a hop count value of the first message is set to “0”. In such a case, when relay UEs corresponding to the same hop transmit a relay message using a resource of a position different from that of the UE 0 (100), an SFN effect may be obtained.

However, when transmitting a relay message using a resource of the same position as that of the UE 0 (100), if the repetition transmitting number of the UE 0 (100) is terminated, repetition transmission of the relay UEs becomes ineffective transmission and thus an SFN effect is not obtained.

When a value of the a is larger than 0 and when a relay message is transmitted at the same resource position as that of the UE 0 (100), an SFN effect and a coverage extension effect may exist in relay messages relayed for the time α.

It may be prevented that a relay message is infinitely repeatedly transmitted through such a method.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a wireless communication device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 35, an eNB 3510 and an UE 3520 include RF units (transmitting and receiving unit, communication unit) 3513 and 3523, processors 3511 and 3521, and memories 3512 and 3522, respectively.

In addition, the eNB and the UE may further include an input unit and an output unit.

In order to perform a method suggesting in this specification, the RF units 3513 and 3523, the processors 3511 and 3521, the input unit, the output unit, and the memories 3512 and 3522 are functionally connected.

When receiving information generated in a Physical Layer Protocol (PHY Protocol), the RF units (transmitting and receiving unit or communication unit) 3513 and 3523 move the received information to a Radio-Frequency Spectrum (RF spectrum), perform filtering and amplification, and transmits the information to an antenna. Further, the RF units perform a function of moving and filtering a Radio Frequency Signal (RF signal) received in the antenna to a band that may process in the PHY protocol.

The RF unit may include a switch function for converting such a transmission and reception function.

The processors 3511 and 3521 implement a function, process, and/or method suggested in this specification. Layers of a wireless interface protocol may be implemented by the processor.

The processor may be represented with a control unit, a controller, and a computer.

The memories 3512 and 3522 are connected to the processor to store a protocol or a parameter for performing D2D Discovery.

The processors 3511 and 3521 may include an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), another chipset, a logic circuit, and/or a data processor. The memory may include a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a memory card, a storage medium, and/or another storage device. The RF unit may include a baseband circuit for processing a wireless signal. When an exemplary embodiment is implemented with software, the above-described technique may be implemented with a module (process, function) that performs the above-described function.

The module may be stored at a memory and be executed by the processor. The memory may exist at the inside or the outside of the processor and be connected to the processor with well-known various means.

The output unit (display unit) is controlled by the processor and outputs information output from the processor together with a key input signal generated in a key input unit and various information signals from the processor.

Further, for convenience of description, exemplary embodiments are described with reference to each drawing, but exemplary embodiments described with reference to each drawing may be combined to implement a new exemplary embodiment. A design of a computer readable recording medium that records a program for executing previously described exemplary embodiments belongs to the scope of the present invention according to necessity of a person of ordinary skill in the art.

As described above, D2D discovery according to this specification is not applied to limit a configuration and method of described exemplary embodiments, but for various changes of the exemplary embodiments, the entire or a portion of exemplary embodiments may be selectively combined.

D2D discovery according to this specification may be implemented into a processor readable code in a processor readable recording medium provided in a network device. The processor readable recording medium includes an entire kind of record device that stores data that may be read by a processor. The processor readable recording medium may include, for example, a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, and an optical data storage device and includes implementation into a form of a carrier wave such as transmission through Internet.

Further, in the processor readable recording medium, codes that are distributed in a computer system connected to a network and in which a processor may read with a distributed method may be stored and executed.

While the preferred embodiments have been particularly shown and described, the present specification shall not be limited to the particular embodiments described above, and it will be understood by an ordinary skilled person in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims, and the alternative embodiments should not be individually understood from the inventive concept and prospect of the present invention.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

This specification uses a device-to-device communication method in a wireless communication system. 

1] A method for a first device to transmit data in a wireless communication system supporting device-to-device direct communication, the method comprising: receiving one or more messages from a plurality of devices; and transmitting at least one message among the one or more messages to a second device based on a priority, wherein the priority is determined in order in which first received signal strength indicating received signal strength of the one or more messages is low. 2] The method of claim 1, wherein the first reception signal intensity is larger than a first threshold value indicating minimum received signal strength and is smaller than a second threshold value indicating maximum received signal strength. 3] The method of claim 1, further comprising: calculating second received signal strength indicating received signal strength at a target device, which is a destination of the one or more messages, wherein the second received signal strength is lower than a first threshold value indicating minimum received signal strength for demodulating a message at the target device. 4] The method of claim 3, wherein the second received signal strength is a value that subtracts a first loss value from the first received signal strength, and wherein the first loss value is calculated based on a first message transmitted from the target device to the first device. 5] The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more messages includes an indicator indicating whether to transmit to the second device. 6] The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one message is transmitted at the same resource position as that of the one or more messages. 7] The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one message is transmitted through a resource having a next index value of an index value of a resource in which the one or more messages is transmitted. 8] The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving resource information related to a position of a resource for transmitting the at least one message from a source device or the plurality of devices, wherein the at least one message is transmitted based on the resource information. 9] The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more messages is transmitted through a first resource set, and the at least one message is transmitted through a second resource set. 10] The method of claim 1, wherein the first message includes time information indicating a time in which the first message is transmitted to another device through a relay operation. 11] The method of claim 1, wherein the first message includes hop count information indicating the maximum hop number in which the first message may be transmitted through a relay operation. 12] A first device for transmitting data in a wireless communication system supporting device-to-device direct communication, the first device comprising: a communication unit for transmitting and receiving a signal to and from the outside by wire and/or wireless; and a control unit functionally connected to the communication unit, wherein the control unit controls to receive one or more messages from a plurality of devices, and transmit at least one message among the one or more messages to a second device based on a priority, and wherein the priority is determined in order in which first received signal strength indicating received signal strength of the one or more messages is low. 